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Delta is very good at letting us all know when it’s adding new routes and expanding its network but it’s definitely not the best at giving us the news when the contrary is true. In the latest set of updates one of Delta’s routes to Europe is noticeably absent from the schedules and there has been no word from Delta as to why this may be.
While Delta trims its routes to Europe Air New Zealand is already planning for life with its newly reconfigured 787-9 Dreamliner which was delivered just a few days ago. The airline plans to use the new aircraft to increase its capacity to the US starting in summer 2018.
Delta Cancels Another European Route
A couple of weeks ago Delta quietly cut its services from JFK to Moscow and Stockholm without letting anyone know and now it’s doing the same again.
From 23 March 2018 Delta will no longer operate its route between Newark and Amsterdam.
As things stand the airline operates the route 4x/week on the following schedule (set to drop to 3x/week from 3 March 2018):
DL148 EWR 18:14 – 07:45+1 day AMS (Tue, Wed, Fri & Sun)
DL149 AMS 13:10 – 16:13 EWR (Tue, Wed, Fri & Sun)
New York won’t be losing its Delta Amsterdam routes completely however – the airline will still serve Amsterdam twice daily out of JFK on the following schedule:
DL46 JFK 16:19 – 05:55+1 day AMS (Daily)
DL48 JFK 19:30 – 09:15+ 1 day AMS (Daily)
DL47 AMS 09:55 – 12:24 JFK (Daily)
DL49 AMS 11:05 – 13:25 JFK (Daily)
If you were booked to fly on the Newark – Amsterdam route after 23 March 2018 your flight no longer exists so, if you haven’t already heard from Delta, you should call the airline asap to get re-accommodated (presumably on a flight to/from of JFK).
[HT: RoutesOnline]
Air New Zealand Is Adding More Dreamliner Service To The US
As things stand Air New Zealand operates a 5x/weeks service between Auckland and Houston but, between 25 March and 27 October the airline will use its newly reconfigured 787-9 Dreamliner to operate this route on a daily basis (mostly).
There are periods in the summer schedule where the route only operates 6x/week but, for most of the northern summer, Auckland – Houston will be served 7x/week by Air New Zealand.
Here’s what the schedule looks like:
NZ28 AKL 16:00 – 12:40 IAH
NZ29 IAH 22:05 – 05:55+2 days AKL
The reconfigured Air New Zealand Dreamliner has considerably more Business Class seats than the aircraft’s original layout with the count going from 18 to 27 seats and Premium Economy has been boosted from 21 to 33 seats.
The seating in the aircraft is no different to what we’ve already seen from the airline….there’s just more premium cabin seating in the reconfigured aircraft.
Here’s what you can expect in Business Class….
Image courtesy of Air New Zealand
….while this is the seat you’ll find in Premium Economy:
Image courtesy of Air New Zealand
The room to install all the extra Business Class and Premium Economy seats has come from the Economy Class section as the number of seats there has dropped from 263 to 215…but that’s probably no bad thing.
The 787-9 Dreamliner offers Economy Class seats with a little over 17″ of seat width and just 31″ of seat pitch so they’re about as tight as you’ll find on any mainstream long-haul aircraft – that’s not good for the distances the 787-9 flys.
Air new Zealand will be deploying its reconfigured Dreamliner on the Auckland – Houston route in December and, with 3 more deliveries of this layout of Dreamliner to come, that’s how it plans to increase capacity to Houston for next summer.
