Delta Air Lines is growing to 29 destinations out of Austin. Delta currently flies to 25 destinations from Austin. Along with their regional partners, they operate 22% of flights and offer 19% of seats out of the airport.

They’re number two behind Southwest, which offers 39% of flights and 41% of seats. The two carriers are duking it out to be anchor tenant for the new airport lease and use agreement as a new concourse gets built. Delta says they see themselves growing to Southwest’s current size in Austin, and naming 150 flights as a target, along with upgauging to larger aircraft.

But Southwest isn’t sitting still. They think they could grow by 50%, according to CEO Bob Jordan, “from 130 to well over 200 [flights a day and] make Austin the largest airport and largest service we have in the whole state of Texas.”

This isn’t actually going to happen, at least not right away. Each airline is jockeying for as many ‘preferential use gates’ at the airport as possible. Then they’ll schedule the minimum number of flights to keep all of their gates. Their overall gate usage will go down.

In other words, the goal is to grab as much real estate as possible as use each piece as little as possible while blocking competition. These agreements are negotiated locally. For instance, New Orleans has required as few as 2 flights a day for an airline to lock up a gate, while Cleveland has required just 3 flights a day out of a gate (8 is reasonable full use, while airlines do push 10 flights a day from a gate when they need to).

The land rush going on right now has to do with:

1. The airport’s new 10-year lease and use agreement being negotiated
   
2. Which funds and launches a new midfield concourse, whose final number of gates hasn’t been announced yet.

Delta and Southwest have been jockeying to become anchor tenants. And there’s plenty of additional lounge space coming online.

Here’s what Delta is telling employees – they get 15 preferred use gates (not actually ‘exclusive use’ as shared by an employee below, which is a term of art). They’ll stay on the current concourse with American (and British Airways, KLM and Lufthansa et al) while Southwest and United move to the new concourse.

Delta held a town hall in Austin where they shared plans with employees.

• Along with growth they’re selling connections through Austin. For other airlines like United and American, with nearby connecting hubs at Dallas and Houston, that’s not really a positive thing. It would just mean pulling traffic at lower yields from existing flights (and reducing the connections those passengers support). But for Delta this is a positive since they don’t have nearby hubs, and may mean picking up passengers whose business they wouldn’t otherwise see.

  Regarding a transfer station, we have grown 800% in the last four months. This summer we became a true transfer station. On a slow day we have 400 passengers with bags going from one flight to another. We are the largest station in the Central Region. With rough weather, crew, and maintenance our first flight performance was challenged.

  

• They’re adding 120 – 125 staff, growing by 50%, and have increased manager presence (will also add a dedicated Sky Club manager). By 2031 they would 10x current staff size to 2700 – 2800 with “HR, Delta IT and an Employee center” plus eventually a cargo facility.

• The flight attendant base in Austin opens October 1 (125 – 150 cabin cew) and a pilot base may be in the cards, targeting a late October announcement.

• They’ve investing in infrastructure, “Baggage Claim 2 is almost complete and Claim 3 will be the overflow for Delta Air Lines. There will be a RFID on Claim 2 and Claim 3. This will be installed this week. We are trying to secure a dedicated training room but are still in negotiations.” I haven’t paid attention to shifts at baggage claim – claim 3 has been used exclusively by American Airlines.

  

• “The current terminal will be Concourse A which will connect to the new terminal Concourse B by underground tunnel. Concourse A – Delta Air Lines, American Airlines, and International Airlines Concourse B – Southwest Airlines and United Airlines American Airlines will have 9 gates. Delta Airlines will have 15 exclusive gates with the ability to use common use gates.”

  Delta would get gates 7 – 22.

  

• Delta plans to “occupy the vacated Admiral Club space which is currently 5500 square feet. There will be an expansion of that area to 10200 square foot to create a temporary Sky Club and Flight Attendant lounge. This should be sometime in 2026.”

  It seems unlikely to be in 2026 because the new Admirals Club needs to be completed first in the West Gate Expansion area, and then work would need to be done on this space. And given the timing discussed, they wouldn’t be moving in to the United Club space next door, so they’d be pushing out at the back of the club into vacated office space that was once the plan for American’s expansion.

  

  

• “The plan for a future permanent Sky Club will be in the area where check point 1 is currently located. This area will be torn down and a brand new 35,000 square feet will be built. It will be just on the concourse level, and if possible, have jet accessible gates. This Sky Club is projected to be open in 2031 or 2032. Delta is hoping to keep the existing Sky Club, perhaps converting it to a D1 lounge.”

  

  

• Delta will sponsor Austin FC football. Part of the airline’s playbook for becoming dominant in a market is local sponsorships. That frames them as the hometown airline, which they’ve done successfully in New York.

  We hope to see some marketing and events to be hosted at the airport and at the Q2 Center. There are some opportunities to volunteer at the Food Bank and at Habitat for Humanity. The dates and times have been emailed.

As for lounges, the plan at the airport may look something like this:

• The ‘West Gate Expansion’ will feature a new American Airlines Admirals Club along with the addition of three gates that will offset the three gates being lost for a new tunnel to the additional concourse.

• 20,000 sqaure foot ‘West Infill’ has been talked about as a credit card issuer lounge (Amex/Chase/Capital One). Chase has already been in the airport, with the old Terrace (outdoor deck) that’s been returned to common use, potentially giving them an edge.

• The 30,000 square foot ‘Tunnel Interface’ space with outdoor deck. This is being talked about here as the new Delta Sky Club. There have been design discussions about jetbridge boarding from inside the lounge.

• 28,000 square foot ‘Concourse B Airline/Common Use’ lounge. If United moves to the new concourse then this presumably becomes the new United Club.

Delta has talked about keeping the current Sky Club, and it’s indicated here that it could ultimately be a Delta One business class lounge. However the report is that they’re also talking about taking the current American Admiral’s Club space on a temporary basis once American vacates that. (Previous discussion had United taking over the American space adjacent to their own lounge until they build out a new lounge.)

The airport’s new lease and use agreement hasn’t been finalized yet. On August 28, 2025, the Austin City Council authorized the negotiation and execution of the agreement, expected to be finalized in the fourth quarter. That’ll confirm which airlines are going where as the airport expands.

So while much of this has been previously reported (by me), it remains notional, as aviation watchdog JonNYC confirms:

in terms of what's reported there, I'd say things are tracking that way but I would read most of that as "DL would like to see X happen" if everything goes according to the vision for AUS" Some of the reporting might be a little over their skis on some parts, I'd say.

— JonNYC (@xJonNYC) September 9, 2025

Southwest Airlines is bigger today than Delta by a significant margin. But Southwest, with its fleet limited to 737s, isn’t able to operate long haul or even Hawaii from Austin.

Delta has joint venture partnerships with Aeromexico and Air France KLM. Today KLM only operates to Amsterdam 3 days a week. There’s been a good bit of speculation about a second Europe flight, and eventually Austin’s first Asia flight from Delta JV partner Korean Air.

Southwest will have a hard time competing with those, along with the 30,000 square foot club lounge Delta plans to build in Austin – complete with boarding directly from the lounge if possible.

What’s outlined here is a plan to dominate Austin. They’ve already become the largest legacy airline, overtaking United and American, and want to grow beyond Southwest too. It would give them a real presence in the Sun Belt, undercutting American’s strategy. And it would give them a hub in Texas like the other large network carriers.

The risk, of course, is that while Austin has grown significantly and continues to grow, that the growth doesn’t support the level of flying that Delta has planned, especially if Southwest grows aggressively as well. They’re positioned to lose money for some time, as they did in establishing a hub in Seattle. So we should be in for the long haul.