11 Potential Routes for Delta’s recent A350-1000 Order

Delta placed an order for 20 A350-1000s in January 2024 making the new type the largest aircraft the airline will operate. Below is a list of 11 potential routes the airline could deploy the new aircraft on ranging from positioning flights like ATL-DTW to long haul routes like LAX-SYD. Logically, many of the routes currently served by Delta’s A350-900s will up-gauge to the A350-1000, which is the case for almost every route on this list.

List with reasoning:

Atlanta Hartsfield (ATL)

ATL-DTW - positioning flight currently flown by A350-900

ATL-LAX - positioning flight currently flown by A350-900

ATL-HND - with HND being slot restricted, opportunity for Delta to increase capacity to ATL, currently flown by A350-900

ATL-ICN - up-gauge from current A350-900, Sky Team connections through Korean Air

ATL-AMS - up-gauge from current A350-900, Sky Team connections through KLM

ATL-CDG - up-gauge from current A330-300, Sky Team connections through Air France

Los Angeles (LAX)

LAX-SYD - up-gauge from current A350-900

LAX-AKL - up-gauge from current A350-900

LAX-CDG - up-gauge from current A350-900 (summer seasonal), Sky Team connections through Air France

Detroit Wayne (DTW)

DTW-HND - with HND being slot restricted, opportunity for Delta to increase capacity to DTW, currently flown by A350-900

DTW-ICN - up-gauge from current A350-900, Sky Team connections through Korean Air

Honorable mentions:

Summer European leisure destinations requiring high capacity like JFK/ATL-ATH and JFK/ATL-FCO

Winter Domestic leisure destinations with high demand like MSP/DTW/ATL-PHX/LAS/HNL/MCO

While we don’t know configuration details yet, if the aircraft is a more premium configuration perhaps LHR