Air Travel: Delta, Alaska Airlines Upgrade Aircraft

Upgraded transpacific flights for Delta and newly renovated aircraft for Alaska Airlines lead this week’s air travel news. 

This week Delta announced a number of new transpacific options out of its Seattle gateway. The airline is expanding its premium seat products on flights to Shanghai, Seoul-Incheon and Tokyo-Narita, allowing customers to choose from 29 Delta One Suites, 28 Delta Premium Select seats, 56 Delta Comfort+ seats and 168 Main Cabin seats on new, widebody aircraft: the low-carbon-footprint Airbus A330-900neo. The new options will be available starting July 1 on flights to Shanghai; August 1 for flights to Seoul; and August 31 for flights to Tokyo. 

Delta also reports that it is investing in a new, state-of-the-art immigration and customs facility in Seattle, set to open in 2020. 

In other new aircraft news, this week Alaska Airlines’ newly retrofitted Airbus aircraft took flight. The revamped aircraft now have a newly upgraded cabin experience that the carrier says combines the best of the Alaska Airlines cabins with the best of those from recently acquired Virgin America. New cabin features include a refreshed color palette, ambient mood lighting, advanced high-speed satellite Wi-Fi, redesigned first class Recaro seats, ergonomically-friendly tablet holders, upgraded premium and main cabin seats, conveniently-placed power outlets at every seat and a curated onboard music program.

Alaska’s Airbus fleet of A319, A320 and A321 aircraft are in the process of being updated in phases this year and by early 2020, 36 percent of the mainline fleet – including the entire Airbus fleet, Boeing 737-700s and three new Boeing MAX 9 planes – will feature the new cabin interior, the airline said.

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