Delta Air Lines will return to both Singapore and Manila. Aviation watchdog JonNYC, who hinted Singapore was coming back in July, now dishes that Delta is ready to announce new service.
Looks like DL to announce SIN and MNL
— JonNYC (@xJonNYC) October 29, 2025
One Mile at a Time also wrote to expect this. Delta has served these destinations before.
- Delta’s last scheduled passenger flight into Singapore Changi Airport was September 22, 2019.
- Their last Tokyo Narita – Manila flight was March 27, 2020. They planned to start Seoul – Manila on March 29. That slipped to May 1, 2020 but – thanks to the pandemic – didn’t start until January 2, 2021. But it didn’t last – getting suspended in May 2021. Asia was late to re-open during Covid.
Delta has the right to operate flights beyond Tokyo to other countries. They acquired it when they bought Northwest. United Airlines has this, also, from acquiring Pan Am’s Pacific routes. These were part of the spoils of World War II.
Northwest’s and Pan Am’s Fifth Freedom rights were approved by the Allied occupation authority led by General Douglas MacArthur. When Japan regained sovereignty in 1952 under the Treaty of San Francisco, these route authorities were grandfathered under new bilateral agreements (that Japan had little leverage to revoke).
However, when Delta gained the opportunity to operate to close-in Tokyo Haneda airport instead of just Narita, it made sense to move their long haul flights – but they didn’t have the slots at Haneda to fly within Asia. So they dropped the Tokyo ‘beyond flights’ and leaned into their joint venture with Korean Air to fly passengers deeper in Asia.
Meanwhile, Delta’s Asia gateway in Seattle has struggled. It hasn’t made sense to add new long haul there – although now Alaska is growing its own long haul from Seattle. When Delta added Hong Kong it was from Los Angeles, not Seattle.
In some ways Manila is a surprise. It’s a strong visiting friends and relatives market, and great if you want to visit shopping malls. But it’s not the traditional business destination like Singapore and not a strong vacation destination either. Maybe I just love the food in Singapore more (which is why I’d have loved to see Kuala Lumpur added, too!).
Singapore Airlines or Delta… Not a hard decision to make…
@Tim Dunn — It’s happening! Keep Climbing! 100 more years! Excelsior!
@MaxPower — You see that? The duopoly continues. Where will Delta copy-next? Mongolia, perhaps? Bah!
Great scoop but a tad confused. Is it through Tokyo vs nonstop? What time is the original flight and arrival? Layover? Type of equipment ?
Maybe non-stop LAX to MNL where the competition is limited to Philippine Airline’s aging 777 fleet with 2-3-2 business class seating (horrible).
Old news, Gary.
And regardless, what traveler would ever pick Delta over Singapore Airlines in ANY cabin. Let alone any USA based carrier? That’s a no brainer without question.
@reyL — Cut PR some slack; those over-crowded 2-3-2 business class merely prepare travelers for dealing with the notorious congestion on roadways in Manila…
Delta is in a tough position. United pretty much owns the Pacific routes since Delta abandoned everything, including the islands. Back in the day, there was even a lounge at Manila. There’s a huge Filipino population in the US that goes back more than a century but how many of them are paying $7,000 to fly Delta One? Singapore could be doable but it’s hard to see Delta offering a better product than Singapore Airlines. Plus, if you’re east of Chicago, you could just as easily fly to Singapore through Europe or the Middle East. Can Delta really make money flying one flight a day? It’s going to need perfect timing for connections. And if there are any IROPs, it’s going to be a disaster. Plus, Delta won’t have much name recognition and zero local partners in Singapore and Manila.
first, US airlines do not retain traffic rights which they do not use for more than 90 days. Delta doesn’t have any more right to start flights now than it had before.
US carriers have open skies from NRT to multiple countries including SIN.
the NRT hub didn’t work financially. that is why it was dismantled. UA started 3 decades before DL or NW In building nonstops from the US to Asia Pacific.
as much as the UA fan crowd loves to talk about UA’s dominance of the Pacific, UA jumped in with all of that capacity in the late 2010s and operated at just breakeven levels of profitability for years.
Only post covid has UA began to be profitable in the Pacific at levels that give DL reason to add significant amounts of service.
The A350-1000 is the gamechanger that DL will use to grow its presence across the Pacific; it is far more capable and cost-efficient than the 787.
as for LAX-SIN which is likely how DL will serve SIN, SQ is waiting on the 777X which still won’t have the range for LAX-SIN. SQ has been serving LAX-SIN with 359s for years. the newest 35Ks that DL will be getting have the range to carry more passengers and more cargo.
UA’s Pacific network does well because of US corporate revenue. DL carries far more corporate revenue than UA; there is a place for US carriers across the Pacific.
DL still has significant name recognition and a sales team in E. Asia.
There are a whole lot of UA fans that are scared stiff at what DL can do.
The reason why DL is making these announcements now is to make it clear to the competition what DL intends to fly. Just as with LAX-HKG and ORD, there will be little pushback.
@ Tim — No one said anything about UA, but rather SQ. SQ is a REAL PREMIUM airline, something DL wishes it could actually be.
See the comment directly above mine.
SQ is a worthy competitor. DL will surpass what UA has done in more than one Asian market
Why no Guam?
Guess MNL and SIN are the next routes DL’s credit card deals have indicated are the next places to fly.
As for predictions of DL owning the US-Asia market…maybe DL should focus on its seriously declining service standards and horrifically inconsistent hard product before try to compete with the likes of Singapore and Cathay Pacific.
it’s laughable that anyone promoting UA thinks that DL has an inconsistent product given that UA flies 2X2 business class 757s w/ 1/3 of the coach seats being aisle seats and Polaris is a far distant competitor to Delta One Suites which is almost entirely used on DL TPAC flights.
DL will do just fine competing against SQ – who hasn’t ordered the 35K – and UA which will carry 2/3 of the number of passengers on a LAX-SIN flight if UA decided to try for it
@Tim Dunn: “The A350-1000 is the gamechanger that DL will use to grow its presence across the Pacific; it is far more capable and cost-efficient than the 787.”
“Cost efficient” as long as the seats can continuously be filled at a good yield. As you know the B787 and A35JXWB compete basically in different categories. Why compare the two?
I recently married a Filipina and being a long time DL Diamond I am glad they will serve Manila again. I had been cheating on Delta building Air Canada points since they started serving from Vancouver
Oh, Timmy, you have an answer for everything.
Your whataboutism doesn’t negate any of the perceptions people have about DL’s inconsistent product. And, to be blunt, trying to minimize DL’s issues by saying airline X does this or airline Y does that is a rather flimsy argument I would expect from a 5 year-old who got
In trouble and is trying to deflect from their own issues. Doesn’t work when a 5 year-old does it, doesn’t work when an adult does it.
The Philippines is home to an estimated 1,000 BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) companies accounting for 10-15 % of the global BPO market. These companies all support American businesses, generating countless visits for business reviews and new business. I make this trip 4-5 times a year and was disappointed when DL stopped their NRT to MNL service. Now I fly to Seoul on DL and then to MNL on KAL. It is an okay experience, but not seamless. When flying Prem Econ on DL my KAL ticket is in economy, although I get lounge access with my Platinum status. It will be nice to fly DL all the way through. I expect that they will have no problem filling seats on these flights.
jacobin
DL’s 35Ks will seat fewer pax than UA’s 77Ws or AA’s for that matter.
Given that DL manages to generate more yield on a SLA basis than AA and UA, I don’t think there is any risk DL won’t be able to fill its seats with good fare paying passengers.
Parker,
the hypocrisy is that you or anyone else talks about DL’s inconsistent fleet when UA has a far inferior longhaul product on their 757s and doesn’t have anything in service that compares with the Delta One Suite which is on DL’s 350s and 339s.
The sooner you get rid of this arrogance that UA offers any kind of premium product, the sooner we can have a legitimate conversation.
AA fans at least KNOW that AA’s product is inferior.
UA’s fans think that UA is God’s gift to the airline industry when reality is far different.
DL is hardly the end all and be all but it does offer pieces of the most elevated product that any US airline offers – and, as for business class, that piece is nearing 50% of DL’s fleet
UA is nowhere in the same league
Again with the whataboutism @Tim Dunn. Your opinions of DL and UA is very clear. You slam anyone who dares challenge your opinion of DL’s superiority while ruthless attacking UA using your own subjective assessment even when it flies in the face of industry experts. Your hate for UA comes across as pathological
No one is saying DL does not have some aspects of an upscale product. What people are saying is that DL’s inconsistency harms their own attempts to have brand story match brand reality.
In the meantime, UA rules:
Manila? Double-daily from San Francisco as of last weekend.
Also started with UA earlier this week: Hong Kong to Bangkok, and Hong Kong to Ho Chi Minh (Saigon).
It doesnt matter ,drlta”s economy sests are packed like satdines. Deltas comfort class is equivalent to other carriers’ economy class.