In the latest air travel developments, Delta travelers can expect to see new and improved aircraft on the carrier’s key transcontinental routes in the months ahead; the Transportation Security Administration is adopting gender-neutral procedures at airport checkpoints; there’s more transatlantic service at SFO from United, Virgin Atlantic and Level; more international route news from United, Delta, Lufthansa, Air France, KLM and other carriers; Air Tahiti Nui adds a West Coast route and a U.S. partner; Cathay Pacific plots a 10,000-mile route from the U.S.; as travelers return to the skies, airport screeners are finding “tons of prohibited items” in their carry-ons; TSA starts to phase in acceptance of passenger IDs stored in Apple Wallet; and Delta cuts the ribbon on phase one of its big terminal redevelopment at LAX.
Delta is reportedly planning an upgrade for its key transcontinental routes — like San Francisco-New York and Los Angeles-New York — as it begins to take delivery of new Airbus A321neos, the first of which joined Delta’s fleet last week. The airline has ordered 155 A321neos, and according to Airline Weekly, it plans to fit out 21 of them with a special 148-seat configuration, including 16 lie-flat suites in the Delta One cabin, as well as 12 premium economy, 54 Comfort Plus extra-legroom economy and 66 regular economy seats. That’s a much more front end-loaded configuration than Delta’s standard domestic A321neo layout and is designed to protect the carrier’s market share on those highly competitive transcontinental routes against rivals American, United and JetBlue. Delta’s standard domestic A321neos will have 194 seats — 20 in first class seats, 42 in Comfort Plus and 132 main cabin seats, but no premium economy option.
Delta said this week it will introduce the A321neo between San Francisco and Boston on May 20, Seattle-Boston Aug. 11 and San Diego-Boston and Denver-Boston Aug. 20 (the latter…