Delta Cuts New York-Paris Day-Time Flight. Booo!
Intro
Unfortunately, there is more bad news on the Delta front, as Delta Airlines has just announced that it will end the New York to Paris transatlantic daytime flight. This was a real big shame, and has now left a gap in the market when flying between the two destinations.
The Details
Delta traditionally has offered three daily flights from New York to Paris since April of this year, along with the few that their code-share partner, Air France, additionally operates.
One of these flights had been a day-time venture across the Atlantic with the following schedule:
DL266: New York-Paris departing at 8:30 AM and arriving at 10:00 PM
DL267 Paris-New York departing at 9:30 AM and arriving at 11:50 AM
DL266 is/was operated by a 767-400 featuring 34 business class seats, 20 premium economy seats, and 184 economy seats.
Interestingly, the only daytime transatlantic route that Delta operated (on their own metal) was the New York to Paris route. Virgin Atlantic offers daily day-time flights from Boston and New York to London, but these are only part of a code=share agreement.
This third service will be staying around, but the schedule will now be shifted to a more generic red-eye route with the following schedule:
DL266: New York-Paris departing at 8:30 PM and arriving at 10:00 AM
DL267: Paris-New York departing at 9:30 AM and arriving at 12:15 PM
My Thoughts
I personally don't mind the daytime transatlantic flights, but I also understand why certain people don't like them. If you are planning to go on vacation (and don't vacation a lot), why would someone want to waste a whole day flying when they could easily hop on a red-eye?
However, I am also aware that certain business travelers prefer taking a daytime flight if meetings aren't backed up due to being able to sleep better once landing in Paris. For a lot of people, it can be a big challenge to make it through a whole day after taking a transatlantic flight, and instead, when landing in Paris, one could be checked into a hotel by 11:30 pm.
Delta operates a decent hard product, including the new Delta One Lounge, but I still wonder if the load factors were significant on this route. I could imagine that during the summer, they were alright, but I am beginning to understand why the route was cut.
Final Thoughts
Delta has decided to end its only daytime transatlantic route from New York to Paris, instead opting to switch it to a third red-eye routing. It's a shame for those who aren't a fan of taking red-eyes since now passengers will now only be left with that choice.
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