Delta inherited its Mumbai operations from Northwest and used to fly to Mumbai via Amsterdam through 2016. They closed this route, blaming the Middle Eastern carriers for making it uncompetitive for them. In 2018, with their close cooperation with Jet Airways, Delta again saw the possibility of launching operations to Mumbai, with 9W supplying traffic into the Mumbai hub.
Delta eventually launched flights to Mumbai in 2019, flying a Boeing 777LR from New York JFK. However, with Covid19 related flight groundings in early 2020, the route was killed after a few months of operations. A lot has changed since, with Russian Airspace being closed to American carriers and the permanent removal from the Delta fleet of the Boeing 777-200LRs, some of which now fly for Air India instead. Ever since, while American Airlines and United have limited operations to India, Delta has not been able to come back, given they don’t have an aircraft to operate the route.
Delta expects to return to India in 2026
Delta currently has the A350-900 as its flagship aircraft. But earlier in 2024, the airline also placed an order for 20 A350-1000 aircraft, which would give it the range to fly further than it can right now. Thrifty Traveler, a US-based outlet, recently happened to be in the same room as Ed Bastian, the Delta CEO, and they reported that he is now looking at a 2026 return to India once the new aircraft joins the fleet.“We really want to serve that market directly,” Bastian said.
Delta A350-1000 (Rendering, courtesy Airbus)
ThriftyTraveler also mentions that Delta’s partnership with IndiGo is coming up, but no details are available for now.
Bottomline
With the Airbus A350-1000 induction in the fleet around the corner, Delta expects to (re-re) launch flights to India in 2026. However, the details of which markets it will serve might be announced closer to the launch date. The airline also intends to do a partnership with IndiGo in the future.
What do you make of Delta’s return to India, if it happens? Much needed or too much capacity already?
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I don’t know what the range for the new 1000 is, but wondering if those could cover West Coast US to West Coast India.
Delta had operations at Bombay even before Delta acquired Northwest Airlines. Delta used to fly from Paris-CDG to BOM, and CDG-BOM was never a Northwest route.
I think the CDG-BOM route was on Air France metal. But you’re right that Delta had operations in Mumbai even before the Northwest acquisition. They used to fly direct to New York from there. Then they switched to BOM-ATL-JFK for a while until they cancelled the direct India-US flights altogether and went all in on the AMS 1-stop service they inherited from Northwest.
Earlier in 2008, they announced that a non stop Atlanta Mumbai flight. Any idea if they ever opertaed this flight ?
https://www.atlantadunia.com/dunia/news/n368.htm
Yes, they did for a few months in 2009. Before that, they used to fly direct between New York and Mumbai. The flights were a recession casualty.