This file photo taken April 18, 2021, shows Korean Air planes and a Delta Air Lines plane at Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Feb. 8 (Korea Bizwire) — Delta Air Lines Inc. anticipates the launch of its new service from Incheon to Portland, Oregon, later this year as international demand recovers from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, a company executive has said.
The U.S. airline had originally planned to begin services on the route in September last year, but the opening has been delayed due to the prolonged pandemic.
“The Delta-Korean Air joint venture will also be the only partnership in Asia to serve Portland strengthening our position as the carrier of choice to the Pacific Northwest along with our existing Seattle service,” Matteo Curcio, vice president in charge of Delta’s Asia-Pacific operations, told Yonhap News Agency in a written interview Monday.
He did not provide a specific time frame on the opening date of the service.
He said the route will be fantastic for corporate customers, seamlessly connecting Portland’s growing corporate base to Korea and the rest of Asia.
In 2018, Delta and Korean Air formed a joint venture to collaborate on the industry’s most robust trans-Pacific routes, providing customers with access to more than 290 U.S. destinations and over 80 cities in Asia.
Delta has a 10 percent stake in Korean Air’s parent firm Hanjin KAL Corp. It declined to comment on any future investment in Hanjin KAL.
Under the joint venture, the two carriers have opened new routes from Incheon to two U.S. cities — Boston and Minneapolis.
Korean Air offers flights from Incheon to Boston and Delta serves flights on the Incheon-Minneapolis route. Delta planes are set to serve the Portland route.
As for the Incheon-Manila service launched in January last year with its aircraft, Delta said it has made a “difficult” decision to indefinitely suspend the route due to continuing travel restrictions and uncertainty that remains in some market conditions with the pandemic.
But Delta customers continue to gain access to Manila via its joint venture partner Korean Air.
“As international travel demand returns, we are excited to partner with Korean Air to identify opportunities for new routes and options to grow connectivity through Incheon,” the executive said.
Matteo Curcio, vice president in charge of Delta’s Asia-Pacific operations, poses in Delta’s Seoul office, in this recently taken photo provided by the U.S. airline.
Korea is favorably located as the first point of entry to Asia for North American travelers and the joint venture is a critical part of Delta’s efforts to expand its presence in the Asia-Pacific region.
The Asia-Pacific region has been particularly hit hard with strict containment policies and travel restrictions, with demand recovery lagging behind the rest of the world.
Today, travel demand from the United States to Asia has only recovered 15 percent, far lower than the 50 to 75 percent recovery seen in other parts of the world compared with pre-pandemic levels.
“The omicron variant is a new setback. But given the high transmissibility and lower severity of omicron, this variant is likely to mark the shift in COVID-19 from being a pandemic to a more manageable virus, which should accelerate the path to a normalized environment,” he said.
This year, Delta expects its full-year system capacity to be approximately 90 percent recovered versus 2019, with much of that restoration estimated for the second half of the year.
“We are confident that the demand recovery will accelerate as the variant subsides, keeping us on a path to exceed the 2019 financial performance by 2024,” he said.
Delta’s full-year revenue plunged 43 percent to $26.7 billion in 2021 from 2019 but improved 67 percent from 2020.
For the first quarter of 2022, the Atlanta-based firm expects revenue will recover to between 72 and 76 percent of 2019 levels, compared with a 74 percent recovery for a quarter earlier.
(Yonhap)
