The Airbus A350 is the flagship of Delta Air Lines, its largest aircraft with its most impressive onboard offering, and the carrier deploys the type to essentially all of its Asian and South Pacific destinations. In Europe, however, Delta’s A350 is rarer, with the A350 only really being consistently deployed to Amsterdam and Paris. It’s visited other European cities before, but hardly for long periods of time, while Cape Town and Johannesburg are the only African cities that have consistently supported A350 service for years, with the A350 now also flying to Lagos during the winter.

Delta currently has 40 A350s, all of which are the A350-900 model, which makes this its largest individual widebody fleet. In addition, the carrier has another 19 examples on order, along with 20 orders for A350-1000s that will start being delivered in 2027. These planes debuted Delta’s PremiumSelect cabin, now available on almost all widebodies, along with the carrier’s DeltaOne Suites, only available on A350s and the Airbus A330-900.

Delta’s Use Of The Airbus A350

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Although Delta has more A350-900s than any other widebody variant, it still has to pick and choose where to send these jets. It operates A350 pilot bases in Atlanta, Detroit, Los Angeles, and is looking to open an A350 base in Seattle. Crucially, this shows its intended focus for the plane. Delta flies to virtually everywhere from Atlanta; however, Detroit is primarily a mid-continent hub with both European and Asian services, while Los Angeles and Seattle are primarily for transpacific routes. New York-JFK and Boston, its main transatlantic hubs, do not have A350 bases.

The A350-900 is Delta’s largest aircraft, but it’s not much larger than the 282-seat Airbus A330-300 and the 281-seat A330-900 that the carrier already flies. While the carrier’s original A350 configuration seats 306 passengers, it’s actively reconfiguring the fleet to its newer ’35H’ layout with just 275 seats, less than the A330s. The 35H layout seats fewer passengers because it has significantly more DeltaOne (40) and Delta PremiumSelect seats (40), and Delta tends to be conservative with international premium capacity.

The A330s, with their less-premium layouts, are better suited for serving the wide variety of smaller European spokes on shorter routes. The A350s, on the other hand, are intended to fly to larger cities on longer flights, where Delta can fill all of these premium seats. Amsterdam and Paris are the hub airports of Delta’s European joint venture partners, KLM and Air France, thereby serving as Delta’s hubs in Europe. The A350s primarily fly here for utilization purposes in between Asian flights, and these are the two European cities where Delta can reliably fill the large premium cabins.

When Delta Used To Fly The A350 To Europe

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Initially, Delta focused on flying the A350 to Asia, and the aircraft later took over former Boeing 777 routes to Australia and South Africa. Post the COVID-19 pandemic, however, as the A350 fleet grew, Delta has deployed the A350 to numerous destinations that are now primarily served by the A330, including Madrid, Barcelona, Rome, Milan, and Athens, in addition to São Paulo, Santiago, Lima, and even Honolulu. The catch, however, is that these cities were mainly served by Delta’s 339-seat A350s, which are no longer in service.

Coded as ’35L’, these nine planes were acquired post-pandemic on the second-hand market and were originally operated by LATAM. Delta initially kept the original LATAM interiors, only updating the onboard branding, and with 339 seats, they remain the highest-capacity planes that Delta has operated since the retirement of its Boeing 747 fleet. When demand to Europe skyrocketed in the years following the pandemic, the 35L was the ideal aircraft to take advantage of it.

But the 35L aircraft lacked Delta PremiumSelect, and they featured an outdated business class product with six seats per row, a far cry from the DeltaOne Suite. The 339-seat layout was always intended to be temporary, and demand to Asia is now much higher than when the 35L was acquired. As such, the time came for the planes to receive the standard Delta interiors, along with the 35H layout for transpacific routes.

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Delta’s Use Of The A350 And A330neo

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Delta currently flies 39 A330-900s, alongside 42 last-generation A330-200s and A330-300s. These planes are based in a wide variety of hubs and are mainly used for transatlantic or South America services, but the A330-900’s initial routes were to Asia out of Seattle, where Delta is reported to be planning a new Airbus A350 pilot base. The A330-900 is significantly more fuel-efficient than the A330s and 767s that it was initially displacing, which made it an attractive option for transpacific routes. In addition, many Asian routes from Seattle are within the A330-900’s range, and it burns less fuel than the A350-900.

However, Delta is looking to grow its Seattle long-haul operations, having already launched Taipei, and is reported to be planning to serve Singapore as well. The A330-900 struggled on the Taipei route and has since been replaced by the A350-900, while Singapore would be far out of the plane’s reach. In addition, while cost is extremely important on long-haul flights, so too is revenue. The A350-900 burns slightly more fuel overall, but it comes with significantly more premium seats in Delta’s layout, has more cargo capacity, and won’t have to sacrifice payload on Delta’s longest transpacific routes.

With significantly more A350s on property today and with the 35L fleet having now been fully reconfigured, Delta is transitioning all transpacific services to the A350-900, while the Airbus A330-900 will now be focused on transatlantic and South American routes. This is also the reason why Delta is planning an A350 base in Seattle, as it’s already switched many of its transpacific Seattle routes to the A350-900, and these flights have to be staffed by pilots from other domiciles. Setting up a pilot base here will, in turn, lower crewing costs.

Delta’s Future Plans For Expansion

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Delta holds a strong position among the three US legacy carriers in Europe, but the Atlanta-based carrier is dwarfed by United Airlines across the Pacific. Delta is looking to close this gap and has already started by launching services to Taipei from Seattle, from Los Angeles to Auckland, Brisbane, and Melbourne, while it will soon begin serving Hong Kong from Los Angeles in June. In addition, it plans to launch Manila from Los Angeles and to serve Singapore in the future. The A350-900 is instrumental in achieving this goal.

Delta currently holds orders for 19 A350-900s and 16 A330-900s, but the A330-900s are mainly to replace the Boeing 767-300ER and for European expansion, since it’s a plane optimized for shorter routes. The A350-900 isn’t meant to directly replace a particular fleet, but to instead further Delta’s long-haul and ultra-long-haul expansion plans. Delta has traditionally been more conservative with this type of flying, instead letting its metal-neutral joint-venture partners handle it, but the carrier’s current pilot agreement now requires additional long-haul flying with its own aircraft.

Today, frequent flyer programs are essentially the largest contributor to an airline’s profits, and frequent flyer engagement partially stems from an airline’s overall brand image. Adding new long-haul routes to appealing destinations drives consumer interests and adds revenue to the loyalty program, and since Delta now has to add long-haul flying with its own metal, this means that it will have a much higher need for these fuel-efficient, ultra-capable A350s.

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The Role Of The Airbus A350-1000

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Delta Air Lines currently holds orders for 20 Airbus A350-1000s, which are set to start arriving in 2027. With 53 DeltaOne Suites and 48 Delta PremiumSelect seats, they will be Delta’s most premium aircraft ever, while also being the most capable aircraft in Delta’s fleet. There could be a place to send these supersized A350s to Amsterdam and Paris, given the strength of the joint-venture hubs, but the primary mission for the plane will be for ultra-long-haul routes.

Delta is looking to possibly return to India, which it last served in 2020, and it’s believed that it will use the A350-1000 for this purpose. Whether it will be from Atlanta or New York-JFK is unknown, but the A350-1000’s low fuel burn and exceptional payload-range capabilities will make it an ideal fit for this role. In addition, the A350-1000 is certain to be sent to Seoul, home to joint-venture partner Korean Air, and Delta could certainly use the extra payload on its services to Johannesburg as well.

While the A350-1000 may be used to open up new routes, its primary role is more likely to upgauge existing A350-900 long-haul routes, given that it will have over 300 seats. The displaced A350-900s will, in turn, launch new ultra-long-haul services since their smaller size means that they’re a less risky aircraft to start new routes.