Delta Adds More Domestic Widebody Flights

Headed into Q4 of 2023, U.S. airlines are preparing for some of the busiest travel months of the year with Thanksgiving and December holidays, adding some domestic widebody flights. Typically seeing heavy usage in the summer, U.S. airlines tend to wind down some long-haul widebody flying as the IATA season ends in late October. Delta just recently added more domestic long-haul flights to its network.

The Atlanta-based airline often adds widebody aircraft to leisure-heavy destinations during busy travel times, sometimes operating routes to Florida or the West Coast from its main hub in Atlanta, although that doesn’t rule out oddball widebody routes that do occasionally exist. First notes by Ishrion Aviation on Twitter/X, Delta has loaded three new domestic widebody flights to its system, these include the following;

• Detroit to Orlando, which will be served on an Airbus A330-300 starting in mid-November and will continue until the end of December. This isn’t the first time the airline has done this, as it did offer A330 service on this route last season. Currently, Delta operates five to seven daily flights on the route, using a mix of Airbus A321 and Boeing 757-300 aircraft.
• Atlanta to San Francisco, which will be served on the airline Boeing 767-300 at a frequency of four times a day starting Dec. 16, 2023. Currently, Delta operates six-to-seven daily flights between Atlanta and San Francisco, all on Boeing 737-900s.
• The final new widebody addition is Atlanta to Salt Lake City, which will get twice-daily service on the carrier’s Airbus A350 starting on Dec. 16, 2023. While both cities are hubs for Delta, this is a unique add as the carrier hasn’t operated scheduled Airbus A350 service to the Salt Lake City hub in several years. Currently, this route sees eight daily flights, all on Airbus A321s.

Finding Domestic Widebody Service

According to data from Cirium, during the months of November and December of 2023, Delta will operate 2,358 domestic flights within the continental U.S. on widebodies. United is the largest operator of domestic widebodies during this same period at 3,365 flights with American being the smallest at 1,092.

Count of continental U.S. widebody operations for the big three carriers for the months of October through November 2023 (Graph: created with Cirium data)

As mentioned above, the majority of Delta’s widebody domestic routes are either between hubs, cross country, or on routes to Florida. But, there are some one-offs, such as flights using a Boeing 767-300 from JFK to Portland as well as a Boeing 767-400 flight from Raleigh to Atlanta, among others.

All routes and schedules are subject to change, and all schedule data was pulled from publicly accessible websites Delta.com, as well as Cirium data.

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Joey Gerardi

Joey has always been interested in planes, for as long as he can remember. He grew up in Central New York during the early 2000s when US Airways Express turboprops ruled the skies. Being from a non-aviation family made it harder for him to be around planes and would only spend about three hours a month at the airport. He was so excited when he could drive by himself and the first thing he did with the license was get ice cream and go plane spotting for the entire day. When he has the time (and money) he likes to take spotting trips to any location worth a visit but has a special interest in Essential Air Service Airports. He got his degree in Aviation Management and Operations from WMU in June of 2022, and is currently working full time for an airline in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

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