Delta Air Lines just announced two new international routes from Boston.
Deltas International Expansion out of Boston
Delta will launch flights from Boston (BOS), to Athens (ATH), and Tel Aviv, starting in the summer 2022.
The Athens flight will begin on May 27, 2022 and fly 3x per week with an Airbus A330-300.
The Tel Aviv flight will begin on May 26, 2022 and be operated 3x weekly by an Airbus A330-9900neo.
Delta One on the Airbus A330 900neo
Although the flights are not yet available for purchase, they will in the next few days. Once they go on sale, I'll update this post and let you know the exact times.
Over the last few years, Delta has served eight transatlantic routes from Boston to Amsterdam, Dublin and Edinburgh, Keflavik Lisbon, London, Paris and Rome. These two routes will allow the airline to have nine transatlantic routes from Boston next summer, or perhaps more.
Athens and Tel Aviv can both be reached by Delta from other airports.
Delta offers seasonal flights to Athens from New York and Atlanta.
Delta Airlines flies year-round to Tel Aviv from New York
In the last ten years, no airline has flown from Boston to Athens. EL AL, however, has flown from Boston to Tel Aviv. This is a significant development for Boston-based flyers.
Delta will soon fly from Boston to Tel Aviv
Why are these routes chosen?
It's not necessary to guess, it is obvious what the motivation behind these routes are. American Airlines and JetBlue Airways are now a strategic partner. American will add long-haul flights to the Northeast while JetBlue provides most of the feed.
American recently launched flights from New York to Athens and Tel Aviv as a result of this partnership. Delta was afraid that American might do the same in Boston so Delta beat American to the punch. This is a direct response to competition.
The Department of Justice is currently challenging American's partnership with JetBlue. They claim it is bad for competition. Although I don't understand all of the logic behind the DOJ, this partnership seems good for long-term competition.
This is an American competitive response.
Bottom line
Delta will launch 3x weekly flights to Boston from Athens and Tel Aviv starting in the summer 2022. These two new routes are great for Boston flyers. Athens has never had a nonstop connection to Boston. Tel Aviv was able to connect to Boston via EL AL.
The obvious response by Delta to JetBlue and American is evident in this move. I'm curious to see if American plans to duplicate these routes or if it continues to concentrate its long-haul expansion on New York.
What do you think of Delta's new transatlantic routes starting in Boston?
(Tip of a hat to Zach Griff
