Delta Air Lines is growing to 29 destinations out of Austin. Delta currently flies to 25 destinations from Austin. Along with their regional partners, they operate 22% of flights and offer 19% of seats out of the airport.
They’re number two behind Southwest, which offers 39% of flights and 41% of seats. The two carriers are duking it out to be anchor tenant for the new airport lease and use agreement as a new concourse gets built. Delta says they see themselves growing to Southwest’s current size in Austin, and naming 150 flights as a target, along with upgauging to larger aircraft.
But Southwest isn’t sitting still. They think they could grow by 50%, according to CEO Bob Jordan, “from 130 to well over 200 [flights a day and] make Austin the largest airport and largest service we have in the whole state of Texas.”
This isn’t actually going to happen, at least not right away. Each airline is jockeying for as many ‘preferential use gates’ at the airport as possible. Then they’ll schedule the minimum number of flights to keep all of their gates. Their overall gate usage will go down.
In other words, the goal is to grab as much real estate as possible as use each piece as little as possible while blocking competition. These agreements are negotiated locally. For instance, New Orleans has required as few as 2 flights a day for an airline to lock up a gate, while Cleveland has required just 3 flights a day out of a gate (8 is reasonable full use, while airlines do push 10 flights a day from a gate when they need to).
The land rush going on right now has to do with:
- The airport’s new 10-year lease and use agreement being negotiated
- Which funds and launches a new midfield concourse, whose final number of gates hasn’t been announced yet.
Delta and Southwest have been jockeying to become anchor tenants. And there’s plenty of additional lounge space coming online.
Here’s what Delta is telling employees – they get 15 preferred use gates (not actually ‘exclusive use’ as shared by an employee below, which is a term of art). They’ll stay on the current concourse with American (and British Airways, KLM and Lufthansa et al) while Southwest and United move to the new concourse.
Delta held a town hall in Austin where they shared plans with employees.
- Along with growth they’re selling connections through Austin. For other airlines like United and American, with nearby connecting hubs at Dallas and Houston, that’s not really a positive thing. It would just mean pulling traffic at lower yields from existing flights (and reducing the connections those passengers support). But for Delta this is a positive since they don’t have nearby hubs, and may mean picking up passengers whose business they wouldn’t otherwise see.
Regarding a transfer station, we have grown 800% in the last four months. This summer we became a true transfer station. On a slow day we have 400 passengers with bags going from one flight to another. We are the largest station in the Central Region. With rough weather, crew, and maintenance our first flight performance was challenged.
- They’re adding 120 – 125 staff, growing by 50%, and have increased manager presence (will also add a dedicated Sky Club manager). By 2031 they would 10x current staff size to 2700 – 2800 with “HR, Delta IT and an Employee center” plus eventually a cargo facility.
- The flight attendant base in Austin opens October 1 (125 – 150 cabin cew) and a pilot base may be in the cards, targeting a late October announcement.
- They’ve investing in infrastructure, “Baggage Claim 2 is almost complete and Claim 3 will be the overflow for Delta Air Lines. There will be a RFID on Claim 2 and Claim 3. This will be installed this week. We are trying to secure a dedicated training room but are still in negotiations.” I haven’t paid attention to shifts at baggage claim – claim 3 has been used exclusively by American Airlines.
- “The current terminal will be Concourse A which will connect to the new terminal Concourse B by underground tunnel. Concourse A – Delta Air Lines, American Airlines, and International Airlines Concourse B – Southwest Airlines and United Airlines American Airlines will have 9 gates. Delta Airlines will have 15 exclusive gates with the ability to use common use gates.”
Delta would get gates 7 – 22.
- Delta plans to “occupy the vacated Admiral Club space which is currently 5500 square feet. There will be an expansion of that area to 10200 square foot to create a temporary Sky Club and Flight Attendant lounge. This should be sometime in 2026.”
It seems unlikely to be in 2026 because the new Admirals Club needs to be completed first in the West Gate Expansion area, and then work would need to be done on this space. And given the timing discussed, they wouldn’t be moving in to the United Club space next door, so they’d be pushing out at the back of the club into vacated office space that was once the plan for American’s expansion.
- “The plan for a future permanent Sky Club will be in the area where check point 1 is currently located. This area will be torn down and a brand new 35,000 square feet will be built. It will be just on the concourse level, and if possible, have jet accessible gates. This Sky Club is projected to be open in 2031 or 2032. Delta is hoping to keep the existing Sky Club, perhaps converting it to a D1 lounge.”
- Delta will sponsor Austin FC football. Part of the airline’s playbook for becoming dominant in a market is local sponsorships. That frames them as the hometown airline, which they’ve done successfully in New York.
We hope to see some marketing and events to be hosted at the airport and at the Q2 Center. There are some opportunities to volunteer at the Food Bank and at Habitat for Humanity. The dates and times have been emailed.
As for lounges, the plan at the airport may look something like this:
- The ‘West Gate Expansion’ will feature a new American Airlines Admirals Club along with the addition of three gates that will offset the three gates being lost for a new tunnel to the additional concourse.
- 20,000 sqaure foot ‘West Infill’ has been talked about as a credit card issuer lounge (Amex/Chase/Capital One). Chase has already been in the airport, with the old Terrace (outdoor deck) that’s been returned to common use, potentially giving them an edge.
- The 30,000 square foot ‘Tunnel Interface’ space with outdoor deck. This is being talked about here as the new Delta Sky Club. There have been design discussions about jetbridge boarding from inside the lounge.
- 28,000 square foot ‘Concourse B Airline/Common Use’ lounge. If United moves to the new concourse then this presumably becomes the new United Club.
Delta has talked about keeping the current Sky Club, and it’s indicated here that it could ultimately be a Delta One business class lounge. However the report is that they’re also talking about taking the current American Admiral’s Club space on a temporary basis once American vacates that. (Previous discussion had United taking over the American space adjacent to their own lounge until they build out a new lounge.)
The airport’s new lease and use agreement hasn’t been finalized yet. On August 28, 2025, the Austin City Council authorized the negotiation and execution of the agreement, expected to be finalized in the fourth quarter. That’ll confirm which airlines are going where as the airport expands.
So while much of this has been previously reported (by me), it remains notional, as aviation watchdog JonNYC confirms:
in terms of what's reported there, I'd say things are tracking that way but I would read most of that as "DL would like to see X happen" if everything goes according to the vision for AUS" Some of the reporting might be a little over their skis on some parts, I'd say.
— JonNYC (@xJonNYC) September 9, 2025
Southwest Airlines is bigger today than Delta by a significant margin. But Southwest, with its fleet limited to 737s, isn’t able to operate long haul or even Hawaii from Austin.
Delta has joint venture partnerships with Aeromexico and Air France KLM. Today KLM only operates to Amsterdam 3 days a week. There’s been a good bit of speculation about a second Europe flight, and eventually Austin’s first Asia flight from Delta JV partner Korean Air.
Southwest will have a hard time competing with those, along with the 30,000 square foot club lounge Delta plans to build in Austin – complete with boarding directly from the lounge if possible.
What’s outlined here is a plan to dominate Austin. They’ve already become the largest legacy airline, overtaking United and American, and want to grow beyond Southwest too. It would give them a real presence in the Sun Belt, undercutting American’s strategy. And it would give them a hub in Texas like the other large network carriers.
The risk, of course, is that while Austin has grown significantly and continues to grow, that the growth doesn’t support the level of flying that Delta has planned, especially if Southwest grows aggressively as well. They’re positioned to lose money for some time, as they did in establishing a hub in Seattle. So we should be in for the long haul.
Headline should be DL adds another money losing hub to go with LAX/SEA/BOS and now AUS. . .only ATL/ MSP /DTW make significant money and JFK (expensive to operate) and SLC (AUS of the NW) make money but not a lot. DL failed at DFW and just trying to get a foothold in TX. . .well they will have it but it will impact their bottom line and not in a good way.
and yet DL generates the most revenue of any airline in the world and highest profits of any US airline.
If DL can manage to launch its 3rd hub in 10 years and still do all of that, then its competitors are clearly doing it all wrong.
DL execs would not be releasing these details, let alone hiring people if they weren’t pretty sure that at least major parts of this plan aren’t moving forward.
WN simply has yet to turn around its overall finances; fighting for AUS has to take a back seat to much larger existing hubs like DEN
Woop woop! Tim! It’s happening! Delta’s newest hub is Austin! Keep climbing! 100 more years!
Not quite a hub but seemingly like BOS at bit more than a focus city. Maybe DL can get a really good deal from AA on the 1980s style furniture now in the AUS Admirals Club.
Gary, it looks like you were flying a wrong airline for quite some time.
@ Tim — and yet DL flies around trash can 763s older than you…give it a rest, dude.
Delta surrendered its DFW hub in the mid 90’s so going back, albeit a different airport is not surprising.
As far as hogging gates, the term for preferential gates should be short, like every 30 days. Airlines shouldn’t be scared of remote stands
Sad day for Austin as folks will be ripped off left and right
Extortion Airlines and their sky pesos program
@Gene — I highly doubt Tim’s still in his 20s; technically, Delta’s oldest aircraft is a 757-200, N649DL, delivered 1989. Ironically, American has the least oldest fleet among the ‘big three’ with an average age of 14 years (DL 15.2, UA 15.8). Uh oh, United may have the oldest fleet overall…
DL realized that being a distant #2 to AA at DFW didn’t work; they now carry only a few percentage points less in local traffic and even greater percentage of local revenue but w/o hundreds of planes that were dedicated to connections.
DL used its DFW hub resources to build its presence in NYC and ATL; in NYC, it handedly overtook AA and B6 at JFK – both were larger than DL on 9/11. DL grew ATL so that WN, successor to FL who was successor to Eastern, has been reduced to a pretty small player.
Texas is a huge market and geographically well-suited for southern US flow traffic. DL’s AUS flights are predominantly local which means they have enormous ability to start flowing connections over AUS by retiming flights and adding necessary spokes, including the dozens of cities in TX and surrounding states that DL doesn’t compete well in w/o a south central US hub.
The 767-300ER won’t be flown to AUS. But for those that want to continue to argue about it, DL’s 763s compete with UA’s 757s and domestic 777s from NYC and from ATL which DL dominates so it can do whatever it wants – just as AA does from DFW etc.
DL manages to make the most money of all US airlines so the 767s are clearly no more of a ball and chain than DL’s supposedly money-losing hubs in NYC, BOS, LAX and SEA -and now AUS
Delta hasn’t figured out how to claw back Cars and Stays AMEX credit yet…I doubt they can figure out Texas. That’s right, just book a Cars and Stays and cancel after you get your credit.
I recently flew the much maligned (by Tim Dunn) UA 777 EWR-LAX and it was just fine, could not find fault with the plane or the service.
Everyone seemed to have a whole row to themselves.
@ Tim — Soon enough, DL will realize they are a distant #2 to United.
I have flown the DL 767-3 several times this year. I found them clean a nd efficient. Wonderful crews and good food. Also on time or early
Delta will dominate business travel out of AUS taking significant market share from AA, UA & SW! They are the superior US airline and it’s not even close.
Delta would be better off doing all of this at HOU and going after Southwest while they are on their heels. Houston will always be the MUCH bigger market. Hobby is ripe for growth and it is far more convenient airport for the Houston area since the LUV of Southwest is fading fast with bag fees and their limited offerings.
ATX is a small market, and the airport is horrible for connecting. Security is hell too.
@Joe D – Austin is only terrible for security now with construction taking out a checkpoint, and it’s construction that’ll be done before Delta sees this kind of expansion. The airport really is not horrible for connecting, and remember there’s also taxiway work being done as part of the project. Much better for connecting than most of Delta’s hubs tbh.
I’m just excited for Gary to start flying Delta more often and get the random hot takes of failed customer experience via more touch points on Delta. I’ve certainly had them (and good times on Delta too to be clear but my god their ancient “refurbished” A320s are falling apart. I’ve never seen anything else like it).
Careful what you wish for, Timmy. Your commenting journey defending Delta is about to go into hyperdrive as you experience what it’s like for a popular aviation website owner to frequently “experience” your favorite airline. As far as I’m aware, no other major website author lives in a Delta focus city or “hub” (or in Matt’s case, chooses Delta in LA). I believe both Ben and Gary frequent AA the most often of the US3 (certainly Ben).
Good luck 😉
@Tim Dunn you keep lamenting about how profitable DL is yet you keep omitting the fact that is all because of their AMEX deal. DL loses money on its core operation.
And to be clear, No. I don’t consider TPG “authors” in the same league since they sold out years ago.
I’m not sure how 120 flight a hub makes.
AUS does not become a logical connecting point with so few flights. Feels like DL is spreading itself thin with so many hub-lettes. AUS, LAX, SEA and BOS make lovely regional connecting points, but the value in hubs like ATL, CLT, DFW and ORD is that you can get anywhere from anywhere at least a few times a day.
As a knowledgeable traveler who spends a lot, why would I fly though AUS where such limited connectivity means if I have a problem I’m screwed?
Parker
first,
if DL is saying 150 flights, they need more than 15 gates. They can’t run 10 flights/day out of a gate esp. in a hub operation; they probably will be using some of the remote gates at least on an overflow basis.
Second, DL operates from 2-4 flights/day in many markets even from RDU but the number of flights/day is not really the issue; the issue is how reliable they operate so you don’t get stuck in the first place. DL has run one of the best operations among US airlines for years.
third, as to your comment about DL not making money just on flying, neither does AA or UA or WN. In fact, no US airlines make money just on flying. The difference between the big 4 and AS and the rest of the industry is that the big 5 have enough ancillary revenues to cover their airline operational losses while B6 and the ULCCs do not.
Let’s chalk this whole “DL doesn’t make money on air transportation” as a loser argument from loser UA fankids that can’t admit that DL has perfected the art of diversified revenue while UA has not; UA flies 10% more ASMs than DL but doesn’t even make 2% more passenger revenue and they ALSO lose money on just flying passengers.
Max,
If I were to guess – and I would bet I am right – Gary’s #1 route is AUS to DCA which only WN flies because it is a DCA perimeter exception flight. DL won’t operate that route for a while, if ever. (at least until they buy WN as 1990 believes will happen)
@Tim Dunn – pardon me, I didn’t 150 flights is the threshold for a hub.
You are sorely mistaken if you think offering infrequent flights is going to create a desirable hub. Case in point:
Flew PIT-DTW-FLL on Sunday. PIT-DTW leg delayed due to mechanical issues and re-crewing on a morning flight. Missed connection in DFTW by TWO MINUTES since DL had no interest in holding the plane (which was already delayed) even though they were already on the ground in DTW and those amazing Porsches were no where to be found. Had to sit in DTW for six hours to wait for the next flight to FLL.
So, no more flight through DTW for me if I’m going to get stuck there for hours on end. And, no this was not a one-off. DL has left me high and dry several times this summer so you’ll excuse me when I dismiss your gaslighting about how amazing DL’s performance is.
I would love to see AUS grow into a proper hub, but I don’t see that happening and since most businesses require an economy of scale to be profitable (and 150 flights is not an economy of scale), I would need to see the numbers before I’ll take your word for it.
So many bickering fan boys from every airline on here, geez. But I think Texas makes perfect sense for Delta. It’s been a hole in their network, they’ve known it and are rectifying it.
And in Deltas defense- if there is one thing that Delta does better than just about any airline on Earth, it’s playing the long game. American still isn’t recovering from what Delta got from their predecessor US Airways in New York. Delta went from mid level in LAX to the biggest. Not by a wide margin, but still the biggest. Took the top spot in JFK, blown up in Boston. All profitably? Perhaps not yet, but they are throwing their weight around.
And their financials look pretty dang good for an airline with so many new, growing hubs! They run their business right, pick up planes at great costs, and deliver solid service and timely operations.
So say what you will, but they are growing all over the country, in the biggest markets on both coasts. Will every one work out? No one can say, but Delta’s track record is solid. And underestimating them would be foolhardy.