As Delta Air Lines’ expansion continues unabated and connecting traffic flows begin to shift toward this Pacific Northwest city, it is becoming increasingly clear that the industry is witnessing something that hasn’t been seen in a long time in the airline industry — a US legacy carrier developing a new airport hub from the ground up.
United States domestic air travellers could face a summer of higher fares thanks to a reduction in airline capacity exacerbated by the US government’s American Airlines - US Airways merger settlement, claims aviation intelligence provider, OAG.
Delta introduced Salt Lake City’s first regular transatlantic connection to Europe in June 2008 when it inaugurated flights to Paris Charles de Gaulle (CDG) and has seen traffic on the route grow over the subsequent years through a mix of point-to-point demand and transfer passengers connecting across Europe and further afield via the Air France network.
The expanded Brisbane schedule will boost capacity on the route by 2,166 seats a week and will support the growing demand for connectivity to North America from Queensland. North America is actually Queensland’s third largest tourism market and the increase in services support the 4.2 per cent increase in passenger numbers experienced in 2013.
This latest announcement shows how the partnership between Virgin Atlantic and Delta Air Lines, which launched on January 1, 2014, is increasing the network of each carrier. Virgin Atlantic will now have access to Delta's Atlanta hub, the busiest airport in the world, for the first time, providing greater access for the carrier to offer connections through to points throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean.
