Delta Air Lines is trailing United Airlines badly across the Pacific — $2.79 billion in Pacific revenue versus United's $6.88 billion in 2025 — and its answer is a radical concentration of forces. Instead of spreading flights across multiple US hubs, Delta is funneling its entire long-haul Asia push through just two airports: Los Angeles and Seattle. For travellers, that means several genuinely new nonstop options over the next two years.
The headline addition is Los Angeles to Hong Kong, Delta's first service there in eight years, launching as a daily nonstop on June 6, 2026. A 275-seat Airbus A350-900 will fly the 7,260-mile route, going head-to-head with Cathay Pacific and United. The route previously failed from Seattle in 2018, but Delta reckons a combination of premium corporate demand and the A350's cargo capability — over 20 tons of freight in the belly — will make the numbers work this time.
More intriguing for leisure and visiting-family travellers is Los Angeles to Manila, starting March 28, 2027 and going daily by June 7, 2027. Delta becomes the only US mainline carrier flying nonstop between the US mainland and the Philippines — a big deal given Southern California has the largest Filipino community outside the country. Historically, US carriers reached Manila only through multi-stop routings via Tokyo or Seoul, so a direct flight with flat-bed suites should undercut one-stop itineraries on total travel time.
Seattle gets attention too. On March 27, 2027, Delta returns to Tokyo Narita for the first time since 2020, joining its existing daily Haneda service and countering Alaska Airlines' growing long-haul ambitions from Seattle after its Hawaiian Airlines acquisition. That gives Seattle flyers two daily Tokyo options split between close-to-downtown Haneda and cargo-friendly Narita.
There's a catch in how the network works beyond the big cities. Delta has no Japanese domestic partner, so trips to places like Bangkok, Singapore, Taipei or Cebu will route through Korean Air's Seoul Incheon mega-hub, where the two airlines share Terminal 2 and connections can run as short as 45 minutes across 80 Asian destinations. The Korean Air–Asiana merger, set to complete on December 17, 2026, should strengthen that hub further — though it also leaves Delta exposed if anything disrupts Seoul operations.
Why should a traveller care? If you're flying from the West Coast to Hong Kong or Manila, competition is about to increase, which usually means better schedules and sharper premium fares. If you're heading to secondary Asian cities via Seattle or LA, expect Seoul to become your default connection point. And with Delta's larger A350-1000s slated to enter service in June 2027, these routes are likely to get more premium seats over time. Whether the two-airport gamble actually works is a question for airline accountants — the new nonstops it produces are very real for everyone else.