Delta to Launch Daily Service Between Los Angeles and Shanghai

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 14, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Delta Air Lines (NYSE: DAL) plans to begin daily nonstop service between Los Angeles International Airport and Shanghai-Pudong Airport on July 9, 2015, pending U.S. Department of Transportation and foreign government approval.

The Los Angeles market makes up 25 percent of all U.S.-Asia demand, and the start of Shanghai service marks Delta's fourth daily nonstop flight to the Asia-Pacific region in addition to Tokyo-Narita, Tokyo-Haneda and Sydney.

Delta's Los Angeles-Shanghai flight will connect customers to more than 25 cities in China, while the Los Angeles-bound Shanghai flight will offer connections to 40 markets throughout the U.S., Canada and Latin America. Delta's new service will support several established and emerging fields of business, including entertainment, technology, healthcare and professional services. The route will operate using a 291-seat Boeing 777-200LR aircraft with 37 full flat-bed seats in BusinessElite, 36 seats in Economy Comfort and 218 seats in Economy class.

Combined with its hubs in Detroit, Seattle and Tokyo-Narita, Delta will operate 42 weekly departures to China's global financial center. Additionally, Delta offers daily service to China's capital, Beijing, from both Seattle and Detroit. Delta continues to make significant investments to build up its West Coast presence to Asia. With recent international additions, Delta serves the top five Asian markets from Seattle – Seoul, Tokyo, Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong.

"Delta's new nonstop service provides our business customers with more access to Shanghai and markets beyond through our partnerships with China Eastern Airlines and China Southern Airlines," said Ranjan Goswami, Delta's vice president of Sales - West. "This route was the most requested by our corporate customers, and everyone will enjoy the investments we've made to upgrade our airport facilities, our onboard service, full flat-bed seats with direct aisle access in BusinessElite, and industry-leading complimentary in-flight entertainment."

Daily nonstop service between Los Angeles and Shanghai:

From Los Angeles, Delta currently operates 154 peak-day departures to 48 destinations and has continued expanding both international and domestic service over the past few months, including London-Heathrow in October; Monterrey, Mexico*; Dallas* and Austin, Texas* in November; as well as Mazatlan, Mexico and Vancouver, Canada* in December.

*Flight operated by Delta Connection carrier Compass Airlines

Onboard, Delta supports and markets the music of emerging artists and short-form content creators through exclusive partnerships that provide in-flight content for customers, who can now enjoy free entertainment from every seat out of Los Angeles through the new Delta Studio product. Every Delta flight from Los Angeles offers BusinessElite/First Class and Economy Comfort seating, and nearly every domestic flight features Wi-Fi service. Delta also introduced international Wi-Fi in 2014 and will complete installation of Wi-Fi service on its long-haul international fleet in 2016.

Travelers passing through Los Angeles continue to enjoy the benefits of the $229 million expansion and enhancement of Terminal 5 at LAX. The current project will double the size of the ticketing lobby and screening checkpoints and open an exclusive Sky Priority lobby with dedicated access to screening checkpoints for Delta's high-value customers. It also will include renovations to the Delta Sky Club and new baggage carousels. All renovations are expected to be complete prior to the start of Shanghai service in July.

Delta Air Lines serves more than 170 million customers each year. Delta has ranked No.1 in the Business Travel News Annual Airline survey for four consecutive years, a first for any airline. Additionally, Delta was named to FORTUNE magazine's top 50 Most Admired Companies in addition to being named the most admired airline for the third time in four years. With an industry-leading global network, Delta and the Delta Connection carriers offer service to 327 destinations in 59 countries on six continents. Headquartered in Atlanta, Delta employs nearly 80,000 employees worldwide and operates a mainline fleet of more than 700 aircraft. The airline is a founding member of the SkyTeam global alliance and participates in the industry's leading trans-Atlantic joint venture with Air France-KLM and Alitalia as well as a newly formed joint venture with Virgin Atlantic. Including its worldwide alliance partners, Delta offers customers more than 15,000 daily flights, with key hubs and markets including Amsterdam, Atlanta, Boston, Detroit, Los Angeles, Minneapolis/St. Paul, New York-JFK, New York-LaGuardia, Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Salt Lake City, Seattle and Tokyo-Narita. Delta has invested billions of dollars in airport facilities, global products, services and technology to enhance the customer experience in the air and on the ground. Additional information is available on delta.com, Twitter @Delta, Google.com/+Delta, Facebook.com/delta and Delta's blog takingoff.delta.com.

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SOURCE Delta Air Lines