For many airlines, Q3 (July-September) is when they make the most money. It is when demand and fares are usually at their highest. It is, therefore, worth examining Delta Air Lines’ long-haul activity in this all-important quarter. In this article, ‘long-haul’ is defined as any flight above 2,650 nautical miles (4,908 km).

In the upcoming Q3, Cirium Diio data shows Delta plans long-haul flights, domestic or international or both, from 12 US hubs and airports: Anchorage, Atlanta, Boston, Cincinnati, Detroit, Honolulu, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New York JFK, Salt Lake City, Seattle, and Tampa. In all, its long-haul flights have risen by a modest 3% year-over-year, but there’s one hub that exceeded that average fourteenfold.

Delta’s Los Angeles Long-Haul Flights Up By 42%

Credit: Melbourne Airport

The latest information shows that the SkyTeam member plans 448 long-haul departures from its Los Angeles hub between July and September. Outbound services have jumped from 315 compared to Q3 2025—a substantial rise of 42% in a year. Of course, the growth is from a relatively small foundation, which magnifies the expansion on a percentage basis.

The California airport will have Delta’s eighth-highest number of long-haul services, up one place from last year. It has overtaken its Salt Lake City hub, which has 342 long-haul departures in the peak quarter, which is unchanged year-over-year.

Delta will now have an average of 4.9 daily long-haul departures from Los Angeles, with its daily offering varying from a low of four services to a high of six. They’ve risen from an average of 3.4 daily flights in Q3 2025 (three to four daily).

Why Has Delta Grown So Strongly In Los Angeles?

Credit: GCMap

Again, it must be stressed that it is relatively easy to look impressive on a percentage basis from a comparatively small foundation. Nonetheless, Delta’s growth in such little time is notable. It is because of two developments.

On December 3, 2025, the airline debuted in Melbourne, with a three-weekly Airbus A350-900 service. It joins Qantas (daily A380/787-9) and United (up to daily 787-9). It was the first time a trio of carriers had operated since 2020, when Virgin Australia pulled out. Los Angeles-Melbourne is Delta’s new fourth-longest nonstop service across its whole network.

On June 6, the carrier will take off from Los Angeles to Hong Kong. It last served this long market in 1995, when Kai Tak was still used. The long-since-retired MD-11 was deployed. It’ll return to the Pearl of the Orient after an absence of eight years, when it flew from Seattle.

From Los Angeles, Delta will coexist with Cathay Pacific (three daily 777-300ER) and United (two daily 787-9; its flights continue to Bangkok and Ho Chi Minh City). Three passenger airlines last operated in 2019, when American served the market.

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It Is Not A Record For Q3

Credit: Cirium Diio

The figure above shows Delta’s long-haul departures from Los Angeles for every Q3 since 2009. With 448 outbound flights in 2026, it’ll be Delta’s second-best period on record. Only Q3 2015 exceeded it, and only marginally.

Examining Q3 data since 2009 shows that various routes that were once served in those three months have been removed. For example, Delta flew to São Paulo until 2010, while Tokyo Narita was part of its map for years until 2016. In fact, flights to Japan’s once-critical international airport coexisted with services to Haneda, which is located much closer to downtown Tokyo.

Delta served the SkyTeam hub of Amsterdam from Los Angeles until 2019, while London Heathrow was part of its network until 2024. Of course, other long-haul markets were previously served nonstop from Los Angeles, such as Papeete, Tahiti. But it was not mentioned properly here because it was not served in Q3.