Delta is adding a second Delta One Lounge at LAX, which will be in terminal 2, in addition to the existing one they opened in terminal 3 in 2024. They are also planning a Terminal 2 Sky Club in 2027. We only learned about this new Delta One lounge about three weeks ago, and it’s already ready to open.
Delta One Lounge Terminal 3, Credit: Delta
The second Delta One business class lounge at LAX is actually complete! Aviation watchdog JonNYC reports that employees are being invited to visit and try the food. That requires construction to be completed. It requires the kitchen to be done. It requires the lounge to be staffed. This lounge is ready, already.
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Second D1 lounge in LAX should be ready to open soon. They're already inviting employees to check it out and try the food.— JonNYC (@xJonNYC) June 25, 2026
Delta’s Terminal 2 gates 20–28 are part of Delta’s complex and accessible from terminal 3, so this is effectively on the other side of Delta’s footprint. It’s not really a ‘separate’ terminal. They are using available former lounge space, and will then be reworking the terminal 2 lounge complex more comprehensively through 2028. There are really two existing spaces which had been effectively combined.
- The old 4,000 square foot Terminal 2 Delta Sky Club mezzanine space above gates 22 – 24, which closed permanently in November 2024 after Delta concentrated lounge operations in the new terminal 3 Sky Club.
- The old Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse which was open from 2015 until the pandemic. After Virgin moved to the Tom Bradley terminal, the space was added into the Sky Club.
Delta One Lounge Terminal 3, Credit: Delta
In total, these spaces offer less than 20,000 square feet for lounge projects. The current T3 Delta One Lounge is only about 10,000 square feet and nearly 200 seats. I don’t necessarily expect the new T2 Delta One lounge to offer the same amenities. But it leans into competition for premium passengers in Los Angeles.
Data from aviation analytics company Cirium shows the relative position of the major airlines at LAX for July (including their regional carriers):
| Flights | Seats | ASMs | |
| Delta | 9,512 | 1,529,742 | 2,684,656,571 |
| American | 8,941 | 1,360,346 | 2,721,481,449 |
| United | 8,696 | 1,451,910 | 2,857,031,041 |
| Southwest | 4,626 | 750,118 | 719,823,327 |
| Alaska | 3,728 | 565,516 | 810,534,501 |
| JetBlue | 1,507 | 240,031 | 592,318,722 |
Delta Air Lines at LAX
Delta sees that the time is now to move. If they increase their service footprint, and better serve the needs of Angelenos, they will capture an outsized share of loyalty – and therefore credit card spend – in this most important of markets.
- American has pulled back at LAX. They decided they couldn’t compete long haul, and retrenched to fly only to joint venture hubs. They’ve also had limits on flying based on gate availability due to construction.
- United’s facilities are currently limited in LA.
- And smaller carriers in the market have shrunk.
Delta One Lounge Terminal 3, Credit: Delta
Delta says they are growing in Austin because its a strong market to acquire high spending Amex customers and that’s the major driver of their profit as they push towards a goal of $10 billion revenue per year from American Express.
Delta From The LAX Sky Club
Delta has operational challenges out of Los Angeles on flights to New York, where they fly old equipment. But they have the best premium ground experience. And they’ve been building their flights. They even told DOT they want to fly Los Angeles – Manila. Los Angeles is an important market, not just for air travel but for premium credit card spend. And it’s still a battleground.
Cool. And yet, ATL, their HQ, will take… until 2029… folks, that’s what happens when you have a monopoly, a fortress hub, and a captive audience… you get treated like an afterthought.
(And now… prepare yourselves… for some sane-washing from Delta corporate… aka Mr. Dunn…)
And it took AA how many years to get a Flagship Lounge opened in PHL? A lounge by the way that is way too small for the capacity. Last Saturday there were no seats other than if you wanted to sit in the middle of a family. I wasn’t hungry having a meal coming up from MIA so I found a quite area in the A Concourse and settled there before walking to B for my connecting flight.
@George Romey — Yup. 6-freaking-years. 2019-2025. And yet, I’d argue that the underlying issue with Delta at ATL is actually worse than AA at PHL. AA inherited an outdated US Airways footprint (recall, PHL ain’t their HQ…); whereas, with Delta, this is self-inflicted. Delta suffers from marketing their premium product way faster than their ground infrastructure can actually scale (or, could it be, they know the ATL folks have no other options, so they can hold them hostage longer than LAX or JFK, where there’s actual competition). Either way, both carriers are failing their premium traffic here, just for different reasons.
So construction is done, but not “done, done” (no pun intended, hehe @1990). Wonder how long it’ll be closed once they do the renovations. Interesting move to open it first, close it, and reopen it.
@George Romney – space permitting, would be a nice touch to have a special section for CK.
@L737 — Was “done, done” meant as onomatopoeia for the Law & Order meme, or did I miss a different reference? (Either way, don’t give George any ideas; it’ll go to his head. But, yeah, fine, AA probably should have a little section for ‘CK’ members, like DL does for ‘360’ or Amex does for ‘Black Card’ members).
@1990 — No reference! Just a fun Dunn pun 🙂
@L737 — I’m all for it. Gotta start somewhere. Be the ‘meme’ you want to see in the world!
They’ll probably make this some ‘lite’ version and focus the transcons on those gates.
And still charge for drinkable liquor at both.
Good DL. Two at LAX, but none at ATL or DTW. Absurb.
Whether you like Delta or not but got give it props for its super efficiency.