Delta hasn’t announced that they’ll be flying Los Angeles to Manila yet. But that’s the plan, and the flight’s schedule has even leaked now.
I revealed in November that Delta planned to start flying to Manila. Then in March they informed the Department of Transportation of their intention. They wanted the U.S. government to use approving Philippine Airlines Chicago approval as leverage to get them better times for their own service to Manila.
Delta is pursuing plans to launch its own Manila service next summer (2027) with daily Airbus A350-900 service from Los Angeles (LAX).
We now know more about this service.
Delta Airbus A350-900
Aviation watchdog JonNYC has the actual planned schedule for the flight. And I’ve always loved long haul transpacifics that involve ‘time travel’ – that arrive back in the U.S. before the time they departed because of the International Date Line (and because flying to the West Coast takes less time than flying further East). Flights like this always used to confuse US Airways agents trying to book award travel.
LAX-MNL
flights departing Manila at 7:40 A.M. will arrive in Los Angeles at 6:05 A.M. on the same day, while return flights will depart Los Angeles at 11:50 P.M. and arrive in Manila at 5:30 A.M. two days after departure. https://t.co/b37BKT8Dpm
— JonNYC (@xJonNYC) July 17, 2026
Service will begin as 3 times weekly starting March 28 from LA (and March 30 from Manila) and move to daily June 7.
Airbus A350-900
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.
It’s a flight that JonNYC specifically called more than half a year ago:
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
One would normally expect Delta to launch Asia service from Seattle. They’ve called that their transpacific gateway. But Delta is really working to build up Los Angeles, and Seattle hasn’t worked the way they’ve hoped – Alaska has been a much more formidable competitor than they thought. LA is a stronger local market. They’ve added Hong Kong there as well.
Delta Air Lines at LAX
Philippine Airlines has long been one of the best ways to get premium cabin award space, though there’ll be more competition for those flights as oneworld carriers add them for redemption. But that’s been indicative to me of the limits of the market, and not just of their lack of partners. I don’t anticipate Delta making cheap awards as prevalent, especially to SkyMiles members. Nonetheless it’ll be interesting to see how the flight performs.
There used to be a Delta lounge (inherited from Northwest) in Manila. They just like there was one in Guam too.
The departure time from Los Angeles is brutal. Especially for anyone connecting in Los Angeles from the East Coast.
Leaked? This huge loss making route has been rumored for months. It will flop but Delta has no choice but to leverage LAX as much as possible as it has no other viable TPAC gateway to put those shiny, and not needed A359-1000s on long, thin, VFR unprofitable routes, or on those where it faces a lot of competition. Delta spent billions on LAX, and now has to recoup the costs. SEA clearly does not work as a hub and gateway and ultimately, AS will push them out.
@FNT Delta Diamond — For-real on the departure times. I’ve done JFK-LAX-SYD, and at least it departs a little earlier in the evening, but staying awake until 10PM Pacific Time after a 6 hour flight and before a 15+ hour flight. Brutal, even in J, even at a D1 lounge. Bah!
@1990: I suppose it’s aimed at maximizing connections but this is brutal. Imagine waiting up 90 minutes for dinner after departure. At least you can get some sleep in Delta One. I feel sorry for the people in economy.
PRASM/unit revenue YOY
UAL/DAL
Pacific: +14.0%/+7.0%
You and Jon can brag about your intel all you want but I said years ago that DL would regrow its TPAC network as well as on the west coast even as UA falters to grow out of its 4th place position in the US domestic market.
When you make $800 million – twice as much – as your nearest competitor in their most significant global region – you can do what you want in their most significant global region.
it is notable that Jon has a DL mole to feed him intel now; never wanting to miss a story, he has no choice but to get on the DL action because that is where the news will be for a good while.
there will be a whole lot more TPAC announcements as those A350-1000s come online and existing routes esp. at ICN are upgraded to 35Ks.
I hope DL can fill that large aircraft and their PRASM doesn’t continue to lag the competition. We have seen that movie before.
no need to hope.
DL is doing just fine on LAX-HKG with its “huge” A350-900, the same type DL will use for LAX-MNL.
UA screwed up by thinking that the 787 and their fuel inefficient 777s would be a good enough aircraft across the Pacific.
Airbus, as it has done with every aircraft it has built to compete with an existing Boeing model, built the A350 to be more capable, larger and more efficient than the Boeing platform.
The sad part is that UA has had A350s on order for years but got into a pi78ng match w/ Rolls Royce and will likely never fly them.
But Kirby will let DL have an operational and financial advantage wth the A350 rather than give DL maintenance revenue since DL has US airline MRO exclusivity on the Rolls Royce engines that power the A350
as usual, DL has outstrategized everyone else in the industry including UA and is now going for UA’s jugular
@FNT ◇ My only hope for getting rest and adjusting to time zones is to view that, once I enter a TPAC plane, I’m in the destination’s time zone. So, I’d push through the sleepiness and target bed time for 10 hours before arrival in MNL (8 sleep/2 breakfast, etc.). Still, despite my J seat, I may have slept 7 hours total in my last 4 west-bound TPAC flights.
LTD says, “UA screwed up by thinking that the 787 and their fuel inefficient 777s would be a good enough aircraft across the Pacific.”
Not. New ‘Elevated’ 789s with another 12,000 lbs of TOGW are doing great on LAX/SFO-SIN. UA has twice DL’s cargo revenue. Still waiting on that list of city pairs the 789s can’t serve. Your silence is deafening. Too funny.
Flying out of LAX to Asia, I do not find the late night departures to be brutal. After eating at a time nightclubs and bars are still active, I take a sleeping medication (doxylamine succinate) and happily pass out for much of the journey. The rest of the time that I am awake, I eat the second meal, play some games and maybe watch a movie or two, but not in that order.
the 787 in UA’s new interior holds 222 passengers; DL’s 359s are nearly all in a 275 seat configuration and can carry tens of thousands of pounds more cargo. Rolls Royce has implemented improvements that reduce a couple more percent reduction in fuel burn on the XWB engines that power the A359.
The A350 is simply a far more capable, larger and more efficient aircraft.
DL will have a have a significant financial advantage just from the TPAC fleet it uses; while UA still mixes in old and wretched 777-200ERs along with 773ERs in its TPAC fleet, DL’s TPAC fleet is almost entirely A359s and will soon include the A350-1000 to even further expand DL’s fleet advantage.
yes, rebel, you can pound the keyboard all day long touting how great UA is but DL is using its financial advantage to come after UA in its key strategic regions while using DL’s fleet advantage – which UA could have matched if they didn’t think they should be entitled to 10 year old pricing after deferring the A350 order over and over again..
Yep, and Delta Air Lines is playing catch up with United on premium international. UA has 74% more int’l lie-flat seat/beds than DL. Yikes!
poor little UA paid insider you are, rebel.
DL made more money per ASM than UA did flying the Pacific in 2025.
UA clearly didn’t monetize its TPAC assets – or anywhere else on its network – near as well as DL did.
DL is coming for UA’s crown jewels and will do it more efficiently and result in greater profits in the process.
cling to UA’s seasonal domestic configured narrowbody service to Mongolia if it makes you feel better. DL isn’t starting it.
On the TPAC routes DL does start, it will give UA a butt whooping it has needed to get for years.
LTD says, “DL is using its financial advantage”
What advantage?
In 2026 United:
+ $200m in net income
+ $2.3b in cash flow
+ $1.8b in free cash flow
+ 56 net aircraft vs +15 for DL
– $263m net debt vs + $51m net debt for DL in Q2
you can tout all the statistics you want but DL made twice as much as UA in the most recent quarter and live in your complete denial of reality which everyone except you can see.
DL is using its financial strength to go after UA’s jugular – TPAC and the west coast – after feasting on AA and WN for the past decade.
DL is simply a better run airline and business and it is taking its competitive fight to UA despite Scott Kirby’s incessant belicose language against every other airline except DL who he knows he can’t beat.
LTD says, “DL made more money per ASM than UA did flying the Pacific in 2025.”
The law of extremely small numbers. Unfortunately for DAL its TPAC initiative is off to a bad start.
Q2 PRASM/unit revenue YOY
UAL/DAL
Pacific: +14.0%/+7.0%
what a pathetic life you live hiding under Scott Kirby’s desk to have to vomit back every statistic you can find to deny the reality that DL significantly outperformed UA in the MRQ and is going after UA’s crown jewels.
Not AA or WN anymore.
UA’s crown jewels and hitting UA harder and more aggressively than it ever hit AA or WN.
Scott Kirby has trash talked every airline on the planet while touting how much DL has taught him – and yet DL is taking the fight to UA’s front door.
All the cherrypicked data you post won’t change the monumental power shift that will take place on the west coast and across the Pacific over the next few years.
Who is flying this route for business?
United and Philippine Airlines surely have the market cornered. Delta can’t even count on connecting traffic in Manilla since Delta abandoned Guam, Palau, etc. So this flight seems like it will depend on cargo, government (there’s a big VA hospital in the Philippines) and maybe Filipino Americans.
Seems like Singapore or even Kuala Lumpur would have been more likely to get business traffic.
How’s that massive hole in Delta’s Pacific wifi coverage going?
https://www.delta.com/us/en/onboard/inflight-entertainment/onboard-wifi
Yikes!
You don’t understand how time zones and the IDL work?
@This comes to mind — That’s a bold strategy (adopting the destination’s time zone, even when starting a 15+ hour flight). I take a slightly different strategy (it’s largely seat-type-based); if it’s lie-flat, I try to rest as much as possible, regardless of time-zone; if it’s not lie-flat (recliner, economy), I’ll try to stay awake for the entire flight (movies, food, etc.) At least going-to Australia, you have the adrenaline of starting your trip and the better-coffee-culture awaiting you there. Returning from E. Australia to E. Coast, US, from experience, is specifically the worst jet-lag around. Worse than Asia, oddly (some of which is technically farther 12-hours difference, as opposed to 10-hours, if you think of raw time-zones, I know, some say 14, but, ignore than date-line for a moment). I don’t exactly know why it is that way, but every time it gets me so bad.
This wasn’t leaked. This was in my mailbox already https://news.delta.com/meet-manila
Nick,
you posted the same thing over on Ben’s site.
The internet peanut gallery has been saying for 20 years – since DL ventured from the safety of its interior US hubs which at that time were ATL, CVG, DFW and SLC – that DL would fail at every one of its strategic buildups in competitive markets – and yet DL has decisively grown to be the largest airline at LGA and JFK – with the most flights of any airline from NYC, the largest carrier at BOS – and still growing as B6 pulls back at BOS and JFK, the largest carrier at LAX, and the largest int’l carrier at SEA.
DL is now taking on UA’s dominance on the west coast and across the Pacific and doing it with a significant financial and fleet advantage on top of its stronger loyalty program (apparently Amex wants to put its cards in the hands of a whole lot of FIlipino-Americans)
Delta will be just fine but thanks for the concern.
and if SGN is real based on Jon’s info, DL will undoubtedly partnering with VN, a SkyTeam carrier to ensure that Vietnam remains firmly in the hands of SkyTeam to the consternation of UA which has flown to it long enough even w/ a tag for DL to get good intel of what a US carrier can get.
this is fun watching DL shift into major UA butt kicking mode.
@rebel — What’s this about a ‘massive hole,’ now? (Hey, congrats on not using ‘Econ 101’ so far. Little heavy on the ‘LTD’ thing, though. Eh.)
1990
Viasat is going to turn on another satellite this year and this hole that rebel speaks of will disappear – but not for airlines like UA that have scores of 787-9s for which the FAA has not approved Starlink.
speaking of Starlink, it was notable to Wall Street analysts that UA seemed much less aggressive and much less optimistic in its earnings call – which comes as no surprise when your primary competitor made twice as much money as you did and you continue to talk about the impact high fuel prices will have on earnings through the end of the year.
UA did tout how many Starlink planes it would have equipped by the end of 2026 – which is nice – but when you will trail your competitor in WiFi coverage over the Pacific by the end of the year and said competitor has got you in a competitive headlock from which you can’t extricate yourself, Starlink somehow seems like the smallest little think you can talk about to distract from the competitive and financial challenges you face.
@Tim Dunn — Across the board, all providers are improving their coverage. I’m happy for Viasat, for Starlink, for LEO (eventually). I just want to see reliable WiFi on any and all carriers. Better for the companies, the shareholders, the workers, and the consumers. Like, this really should be a win-win-win-win. (Much of the Wall Street woes are more-so about the inflated/deflate Space-X IPO.)
@Barry Graham – this was published several hours after what i wrote
you are right on 1990
The point is that UA will not have an advantage with Starlink given that DL – and B6 – has had wide scale free WiFi for years before UA even got started and UA is not going out of business.
If UA managed to be uncompetitive without even having high speed WiFi, then DL won’t be at a disadvantage for even a few months or years by having slower internet – and the speed might not even be perceptible to many passengers by the time all of the new satellites are launched – and as so many airlines add Starlink.
what will matter competitively is that DL is aiming for UA’s gonads and is delivering kick after kick, making it clear that DL is dead serious about going after UA’s crown jewels and there isn’t a thing that UA can do about it.
@Tim Dunn — We’ve been mostly on the same page about WiFi this whole time. Agreed, Delta and jetBlue lead the way on complimentary WiFi for frequent flyers on most of their fleets; now everyone else is catching up. About time, I say!
“UA will not have an advantage with Starlink”
Thinks nobody, but you. Cuckoo.
@rebel — Speaking of “cuckoo”… who came up with the ole ‘cuck chair’ line? That one cracks me up. (I think it was on OMAAT.) Oh, you guys play nice now…
Apparently, Delta is the world’s only PERFECT airline.
@DesertGhost — “And you’ve been CEO of…” (I haven’t forgotten!)
ghost,
no, DL is not perfect but profitable enough to shift its competitive focus to UA after substantial gains against AA and WN.
Over the past 20 years, DL has overtaken AA as the largest airline at JFK and LGA, then shifted focus to LAX where it became the largest airline post covid.
At AUS, DL waited for AA’s expansion to implode before DL started expanding and it is the largest legacy there.
At both BOS and JFK, DL is now larger than B6
WN has retreated from ATL.
At SEA, where DL never expected to be the largest domestic airline, DL is the largest international carrier and has defied the internet squad that is convinced that DL can’t make it in SEA.
btw, if Jon’s rumors about SGN and SIN are correct, DL will have room for expansion to SE Asia with overnight departures from SEA which would alleviate the gate space limitations and more effectively use DL’s domestic feed that arrives later in the day to SEA.
and at LAX, DL is ready to dish out a daddy sized whooping to UA which has been trash talking everyone except DL for a decade. DL isn’t messing around w/ its focus on UA which is more aggressive and more directed at the jugular (or the groin) than any previous competitive assault on any other airline.
Perfect, no. Intensely competitive and with a mile long track record of growing at the expense of competitors, yes.