DOT Approves Delta Transatlantic Service

The U.S. Department of Transportation today gave Delta Air Lines final approval to add by this summer 11 new routes from the United States to markets in Europe, the Middle East, Mexico and South America.

Pending various government approvals, Delta by June would offer "more flights and destinations across the Atlantic than any other global airline," the carrier said today in a statement.

Among the routes, Delta on June 5 will offer nonstop flights five days per week from New York's JFK International Airport to Kiev, Ukraine, pending Ukrainian government approval.

This spring, Delta also will offer flights between JFK and Budapest, Hungary; Dublin and Shannon, Ireland; and Manchester, England as well as five new routes to Mexico and a new route to Brazil-its first South American destination served from JFK.

Meanwhile, the airline also is bolstering service from its Atlanta hub, with new non-stop service to Athens, Greece; Copenhagen, Denmark; Dusseldorf, Germany; Edinburgh, Scotland; Nice, France; Tel Aviv, Israel; and Venice, Italy.

Delta—like many of its legacy airline peers—has been aggressively expanding to foreign markets as they continue to court higher-yielding corporate business. During the first six months of 2005 alone, traffic and capacity growth by several carriers to multiple geographic regions reached double-digit percentages (BTN, July 18, 2005).