Delta Air Lines will launch a new route to Copenhagen next summer, further strengthening its partnership with new SkyTeam alliance member Scandinavian Airlines (SAS).
Service connecting Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport (MSP) and Copenhagen Airport (CPH) will commence on May 22, 2025, operating three times per week using Airbus A330-300 aircraft. Flights will be on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays on the eastbound leg.
The 4,266-mi. (3,707-nm) route will become Delta’s second to Denmark’s capital city alongside its summer season service from New York John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK). The carrier also serves Stockholm Arlanda Airport from JFK.
“Many Minnesotans are of Scandinavian heritage, and this new route offers great access to support deeper cultural ties and the continuation of cross-Atlantic business connections between our regions,” says Brian Ryks, CEO and executive director of the Metropolitan Airports Commission, which owns and operates MSP.
Delta’s decision to introduce the CPH route comes after SAS last month joined SkyTeam following its departure from Star Alliance. The two airlines have also signed a codeshare agreement, which will give Delta passengers access to 50 destinations in northern Europe via SAS' hubs in Copenhagen, Oslo and Stockholm. In turn, SAS customers will be able to connect to more than 150 destinations in North America through Delta's hubs.
SAS has already started to shift its U.S. strategy to better align with its new partner, launching a route between Copenhagen and Delta's Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport hub last June and announcing plans to return to Seattle from next May after a 15-year absence.
Speaking at the World Aviation Festival in Amsterdam on Oct. 9, SAS CEO Anko van der Werff said that the airline is also keen to join the transatlantic venture in place between Air France-KLM, Delta and Virgin Atlantic. Air France-KLM took a 19.9% stake in SAS earlier this year.
“My message is that we have been held back by not being in a (transatlantic) joint venture, so we definitely have the ambition,” van der Werff said. “Air France-KLM have also been public about the fact that they want us to be part of their joint venture.”
Delta’s latest European expansion comes after the carrier in September revealed plans to launch seven new transatlantic routes during the summer 2025 season, including its first-ever nonstop service from New York JFK to Catania, Sicily. MSP will also see a new route to Rome.
Additionally, the carrier has confirmed that flights between Los Angeles International Airport and Shanghai Pudong International Airport will resume in June 2025, operating three times per week using A350-900 aircraft. The nonstop route has been suspended since the onset of the pandemic in 2020.
Delta in September requested an extension from the U.S. Transportation Department for unused flight frequencies between the U.S. and mainland China for the winter 2024-25 season, citing ongoing market challenges and reduced travel demand.
The airline currently operates daily flights from Seattle and Detroit to Shanghai, but four other routes—Atlanta-Shanghai, Detroit-Beijing, Los Angeles-Shanghai and Seattle-Beijing—remain on hold.
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