Delta is running a “Route Race” where they say they’re letting SkyMiles members and their employees vote on one European island that will be added as a summer 2026 destination.
- Ibiza (IBZ)
- Malta (MLA)
- Olbia, Sardinia (OLB)
Voting takes place 7 a.m. Eastern August 25 – August 29 5 p.m. Eastern through the Delta app . Voting happens in the Fly Delta app only. Results to be announced 30 days after voting closes (so late September). The winning destination is based on the cumulative vote of SkyMiles members and employees.
They don’t mention origin city by it’s almost certainly New York JFk and a Boeing 767 (so inferior business class product, but routes with no competition so they’ll figure this matters less).
It’s odd to pre-announce route plans – and to outsource network planning – so I have to wonder if this is just engagement farming.
- Delta will select all three, “we discovered our members really like all of these destinations!”
- They already know how the vote will go, or they’ll tilt the scales to their preferred outcome.
- All of these are marginal anyway, a crapshoot, so who cares and they really can just roll the dice?
Ultimately summer Europe is something that usually does well, except when American flew to Bologna. Non-stop secondary Europe is just something you try at this point. I like Malta – I’ve actually never been (!) and this was the first trip I cancelled at the start of the pandemic. I think of Ibiza as too many lower end package holidays to match the premium demand that would make this work. As for Sardinia, Italy has been hot and more or less anywhere U.S. carriers fly non-stop has been working. Will that last?
Letting members vote does get app downloads, sign‑ins and push‑opt‑ins (Delta explicitly reserves the right to market to you based on your vote). They get coverage now and again in late September. On the other hand they’re not actually obligated to do anything here. The flight may not be daily over summer!
Regardless, I’m going to guess around a 10 p.m. departure on a Boeing 767 from JFK, arrive Europe around 11 a.m. to Noon, with a return from Europe scheduled two hours later and landing back in the states late afternoon. This maximizes connectivity on the U.S. side as well as timing arrivals to hotel check-in/check-out in Europe.
And if I had to pick I’d say Costa Smeralda is the most premium, with greatest chance to sell out business class, while Ibiza would be best to fill the back cabin.
Oh, yeah, they’ve definitely already decided (probably Ibiza), and this is totally ‘engagement bait.’ (Gary should know, he’s the king of ‘engagement bait.’) Oh, the thought of a publicly-traded company in 2025 using ‘direct democracy’ for its business decisions; psh, what is this Ancient Athens? It’s all about ‘profits’ and nothing to do with what passengers want. @Tim Dunn, beg to differ?
Ibiza by a mile.
Oh boy, the times I have had there. What happens in Ibiza… never happened.
the bigger point is that southern Europe intends to be a red hot place to spend a few 767s for 4-5 months of very peak demand – which is also why the 767 is a good choice; they can be deployed on domestic routes for the rest of the year.
DL is probably trolling UA with these route choices who can’t stand to see DL start anything that UA doesn’t serve.
Let’s see premium Delta try to serve Hong Kong, Taipei Taoyuan, Kaohsiung, Taichung, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Fukuoka, Hiroshima, etc.
What ever happened to northern Europe, like Hanover, Gothenburg, etc.
@Tim Dunn — Shots fired! Where’s @MaxPower with the rebuttal? And don’t sell yourself short, friend; DL also sends them to central and northern Europe as well. See ARN and PRG as unique examples. Plus, that new SkyTeam partner SAS helps… oh, who’d were they with before? Ouch again, United…
Sardinia for the toffs.
Ibiza for the party animals and druggies.
Malta for the history buffs.
Btw all are major destinations for Ryanair, Easyjet and Wizz..
derek,
in case you missed it, HA was the last remaining carrier to several of those Japanese cities and they are dropping more of their Japanese network from HA
and DL does serve TPE and is restarting HKG in direct competition w/ UA
and KLM does quite well to Northern Europe and, as noted, SAS and CPH will only strengthen that role. I would bet part of the reason for delaying SK’s admission to the JV is that DL needs more widebodies to add not just SK but also the added capacity that will come from KE’s merger with Asiana.
and jr,
low cost carriers have heavily taken over leisure routes within Europe. Most of the southern European routes that are flown by US carriers are leisure routes that happen to have a premium component of people that are willing to pay for nicer service; there are ground resources to create a decent experience even in leisure locations.
@Tim Dunn — Can’t blame @derek for wanting to go to SIN and FUK.
@Mike
What happens in Ibiza stays in Ibiza. Except if you’re an Austrian politician…
@ Tim — A crappy destination is the perfect to place to deploy a crappy DL 763.
Gene,
you still haven’t figured out that DL is a business. and they clearly will deploy their assets where people will pay for their services. Doesn’t matter what you think.
DL has been consistently the most profitable US airline including across the Atlantic for more than a decade. They know what what they are doing.
@Thomas — That’s a deep cut; others may not get your reference, but I did. If I recall correctly, it was far-right leader Strache’s ‘meetup’ with niece of a Russian oligarch seeking control of an Austrian newspaper; led to his resignation, snap elections, before the pandemic. (Yet another reminder that we, the free peoples’ of the world, have been under attack by war criminal Putin this whole time.)
@Tim Dunn — Exactly. Delta knows what it’s doing. So, with that in mind, which is it Tim? Ibiza?
DL has created a certain amount of expectation by mentioning any city.
I wouldn’t be surprised if part of the calculus is negotiations that are going on at each of those locations.
and, if all things are equal, even though they rarely are, DL could serve all 3 on a less-than-daily basis.
adding 3 new dots not just to A US carrier route map but not served by ANY US airline would be a bid deal esp. since DL is not going to use domestic configured narrowbodies as UA has done to add a number of its recent route map dots.
@Tim Dunn — That’s actually a hilarious possibility… Delta in a month: ‘Gotcha, we’re flying to all three!’ Oh, and ‘sick burn’ going after UA for flying old 757s on EWR/ORD-DUB, EDI, etc., (even though Delta still does, too, like MSP/DTW-KEF, etc.), and at least those have the old 2-2 Polaris lie-flat. Though, if everyone gets A321XLR, then the ‘big three’ should pull a ‘jetBlue’ and fly more single-aisle to smaller airports across the Atlantic.