Delta Air Lines carried about 17 million long-haul passengers in 2025, which increased by 5% year-over-year. It was the SkyTeam member’s best year to date for such traffic. Compared to before the pandemic in 2019, long-haul passengers rose by two million.

Delta transported more than one in eight of the US’s long-haul passengers last year (12.8%). It was the second-largest operator, behind United Airlines (15.8%). American Airlines was in a distant third place (9.8%). All of these figures, and many that follow, were derived from the US Department of Transportation.

Delta’s Ten Long-Haul Routes With The Lowest Load Factors

Credit: GCMap

Assuming a minimum of 2,500 round-trip passengers, the carrier had 122 long-haul routes last year. This comprised seven domestic and 115 international links.

The DOT shows that the airline’s average long-haul seat load factor was 84.6%. This was marginally lower than American’s result (84.9%) but more than United’s (81.0%). Load factor is, as always, just one performance measure.

Such analysis usually comes with caveats or, at least, some context-setting information. That’s no different here. Many of the routes mentioned below have already ended or started or returned at some point last year. Whether it’s right to include them is debatable.

An Initial Look At Delta’s Morocco Route

Credit: Marrakesh Menara Airport

On October 25, 2025, Delta took off from Atlanta, the world’s busiest airport for passengers and the airline’s top hub, to the ever-popular Marrakech. The commencement meant the airline returned to North Africa for the first time since 2011, when flights from New York JFK to Cairo ended.

Delta’s debut in Marrakech made history in various ways. For example, it was the first time that the airline had flown to Morocco, and it was the first time that Atlanta had service to the country. Its launch came 12 months after United began Newark-Marrakech flights. Until then, the so-called Red City did not have any US flights. Now two airlines provide them.

Running seasonally, Delta serves Marrakech three times weekly on its 238-seat Boeing 767-400ERs. The frequency jumped to daily around Christmas, with this setup continuing in 2026.

Given how new the route is, it is perhaps unfair to comment on the initial performance. After all, all markets take time to develop, especially long-haul, even with financial incentives and other risk-sharing agreements. It’d be better to wait until its first full season. Nonetheless, Delta’s load fell to just 71.7% in December, down by nearly six points from November, with half of that month having a daily offering.

Related

Up To 16-Hour Nonstop Flights: Etihad Airways’ 10 New Ultra-Long Routes In 2026

Two of the routes are brand-new this year, while another started in 2025. Learn more here!

Nearly Nine In Ten Passengers Connected

Credit: Delta Air Lines

Booking data indicates that about 88% of Delta’s Marrakech passengers connected to another flight in Atlanta. While the route would always be massively driven by transit traffic, that has to be among the carrier’s highest proportions across its entire long-haul network. That’s a topic for another time.

Pretty much every new route grows the local market. Nonstop flights do that, and this route is no exception. Comparing booking data for November and December 2024 with the same two months in 2025 shows that the number of point-to-point passengers—those who only flew between Atlanta and Marrakech—jumped by 470%. Of course, the market remains tiny.