The Hindu Business Line : Delta to fly to Atlanta direct, not New York

Mumbai, Nov. 4 Delta Air Lines, the US-based carrier, has announced the replacement of its Mumbai-New York flight with a daily non-stop flight to Atlanta. This shift in destination has come as the company feels the new sector would earn higher passenger traffic and better cargo yields.

Addressing newspersons, Mr Frank Jahangir, Vice-President of Sales — Europe, Middle East, Africa and India, said the new route would offer Indians greater connectivity from Atlanta. Customers travelling from India would have access to 150 onward connections to destinations across the US and over 30 connections to the Caribbean and Latin America.

The carrier, which completed a merger with Northwest Airlines last week, commenced operations on the Mumbai-Atlanta sector from November 1 with the Boeing 777-200LR in a two-class configuration with 43 business class seats and 233 seats in the economy class. The carrier is not offering any introductory fares on the sector for the moment. He refused to comment on route expansion plans from India.

Commenting on the opportunities on the freight front, Delta’s Ms Danita Waterfall-Brizzi, Regional Director of cargo sales, said: “We anticipate high cargo yields on the new Atlanta flight. Our freight customers will be able to move an average of 18 tonnes same-day delivery seven-days-a-week to more wide-body destinations in North and South America than any other carrier.”

Delta also has an alliance with India’s Kingfisher Airlines which it plans to continue, said Mr Jahangir.