Delta Air Lines has just filed with the US Department of Transportation (DOT) to request the right to operate flights to Cape Town. Some may remember that Delta planned to serve Cape Town last year, but the route wasn’t approved. This time it’s a bit different.
The basics of Delta’s Cape Town service plans
Delta would like to launch a 3x weekly nonstop flight between Atlanta (ATL) and Cape Town (CPT), commencing as of November 18, 2022. If approved, the route would operate with the following schedule:
Atlanta to Cape Town departing 8:45PM arriving 6:45PM (+1 day)
Cape Town to Atlanta departing 9:00PM arriving 6:25AM (+1 day)
The 8,130 mile flight would be operated using an Airbus A350-900, featuring a total of 306 seats. This includes 32 business class seats, 48 premium economy seats, and 226 economy seats. Delta is requesting to operate the flight year-round, though does want flexibility to reduce capacity during off-peak periods, as needed.
The intent is for this to complement Delta’s existing Atlanta to Johannesburg flight. However, Delta is asking for the flexibility to potentially operate an Atlanta to Johannesburg to Cape Town to Atlanta triangle route. While the intent is currently for the flight to be nonstop in both directions and complement the existing Johannesburg service, Delta clearly wants some flexibility here.
Delta would be the second US airline to serve Cape Town. United Airlines has operated seasonal flights between Newark and Cape Town since 2019, and the airline just recently announced that this flight will be year-round as of June 2022.
This is Delta’s second attempt to serve Cape Town
The concept of Delta launching flights to Cape Town might sound familiar, and that’s for good reason. In mid-2020, Delta announced plans to operate a triangle route to Cape Town:
- Delta had always flown its Boeing 777s between Atlanta and Johannesburg, but the airline retired 777s due to the…