Delta Air Lines To Resume Transpacific Flights From Salt Lake City

Delta Air Lines plans to restore transpacific service from Salt Lake City for the first time in more than a decade with a new year-round route to Seoul, South Korea.

The carrier previously operated scheduled service to Tokyo Narita from Salt Lake City International Airport (SLC) until September 2011, according to U.S. Transportation Department data. However, the airport has been without nonstop flights to the Asia-Pacific region ever since.

The new route to Seoul Incheon International Airport (ICN) will take off on June 12, 2025, operating daily using Airbus A350-900 aircraft.

It will become Delta’s fifth route to Seoul alongside flights from its hubs in Atlanta, Detroit, Minneapolis-St. Paul, and Seattle.

Additionally, Delta’s transpacific joint venture and SkyTeam alliance partner Korean Air serves 11 destinations in the U.S. from Seoul, flying to Atlanta, Boston, Chicago O’Hare, Dallas/Fort Worth, Honolulu, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, New York John F. Kennedy, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington Dulles.

“As Salt Lake City continues to grow as a vital Delta hub, our strong joint venture with Korean Air allows us to offer unmatched connectivity between the U.S. and Asia, leveraging strong hubs on both sides,” Delta’s SVP network planning Joe Esposito says.

Sabre Market Intelligence data shows that Seoul was the second largest O&D market in Asia-Pacific from Salt Lake City during 2023, with about 13,000 two-way passengers. Tokyo ranked as the largest, attracting 23,000 passengers.

Salt Lake City is one of Delta’s main domestic hubs, and the airline offers nearly 250 peak-day departures from SLC to more than 90 destinations. Long-haul service from the airport includes routes to Amsterdam, London Heathrow and Paris Charles de Gaulle.

In the wider U.S.-South Korea market, Korean Air currently accounts for 42.5% of nonstop capacity between the nations, OAG Schedules Analyser data shows. Asiana Airlines, which is in the process of merging with Korean Air, has a 24.9% market share in September 2024, followed by Delta at 15.3%. Other carriers serving the market are Air Premia, American Airlines, Hawaiian Airlines and United Airlines.