Delta Quietly Reveals Plan To Fly To Manila In DOT Filing — As It Tries To Delay Philippine Airlines Chicago Flight

I wrote in November that Delta wouldn’t be announcing this yet, but they planned to start flying to Manila. They still haven’t announced it, but they’ve now revealed they’re planning it to the Department of Transportation.

• Philippine Airlines is planning to launch service to Chicago O’Hare
  
• Delta submitted an argument that approval should be deferred because of lack of reciprocal access to desireable takeoff and landing times at the Manila airport
  
• They want the U.S. government to use Chicago approval as leverage to get Delta better times for their own service.

Delta Airbus A350-900

Specifically here’s what Delta says they’re planning:

Delta is pursuing plans to launch its own Manila service next summer (2027) with daily Airbus A350-900 service from Los Angeles (LAX).

Airbus A350-900

And here’s what they asked the federal government for.

Delta respectfully asks the Department to defer action until Delta and the U.S. Government receive written assurances from the Philippine Government that the slots and airport access necessary to implement planned Manila service will be available on commercially viable terms.

This is a flight that aviation watchdog JonNYC specifically called:

So with regard to Delta’s next moves internationally; SIN, MNL, and LAX/JFK-ICN are definitely in the immediate future. It’s further stated that future Asia expansion will launch out of LA -and- Seattle, mentioning ICN as an ideal hub for onward Asian travel but mentioning that…

— JonNYC (@xJonNYC) November 4, 2025

Delta has service Manila before, as recently as 2020, but from within Asia. Their last Tokyo Narita – Manila flight was March 27, 2020. They ha dplanned to start Seoul – Manila on March 29, 2020. That slipped to May 1, 2020 but – thanks to the pandemic – it didn’t start until January 2, 2021. And it was suspended months later, in May 2021.

I would normally expect Delta to launch Asia service from Seattle. They’ve called that their transpacific gateway. However I’d note that United flagged in an internal presentation that they’re number two in Los Angeles (behind Delta) and highlighted ‘key initiatives’ to grow there. So perhaps Delta could be leaning harder into Los Angeles in response.

Delta Air Lines at LAX

On the other hand, Delta’s Asia gateway in Seattle has struggled. They’ve added Hong Kong from Los Angeles. So perhaps their thinking has shifted.