Delta Air Traces has simply revealed the following location for its premium worldwide lounge community, and it’s not the airport that I might’ve anticipated…
Delta One Lounge deliberate for SLC
We’re lastly seeing Delta One Lounges come to life. The Delta One Lounge New York (JFK) and Delta One Lounge Los Angeles (LAX) have opened lately. Then the Delta One Lounge Boston (BOS) is meant to open in December 2024, whereas the Delta One Lounge Seattle (SEA) is meant to open in early 2025.
We’ve now realized concerning the location for the fifth lounge within the community, as reported by Sean Cudahy, and confirmed to me by a Delta spokesperson. There are plans for a Delta One Lounge to open at Salt Lake Metropolis Airport (SLC). As of now, no additional particulars have been shared, so it stays to be seen when the lounge will open, how huge it is going to be, and many others.
For context on the present lounge scenario on the airport, there’s a 28,000 sq. foot Delta Sky Membership in Concourse A on the airport. It’s my understanding {that a} equally sized Sky Membership is deliberate for Concourse B, although I now really feel like that would no less than partly turn out to be the brand new Delta One Lounge, if I needed to guess.
Understand that there are additionally plans for an Amex Centurion Lounge in Concourse B, and it’s anticipated to open in 2025. There are largely overlapping entry necessities, given the shut relationship between Amex and Delta, so Delta passengers may have fairly a little bit of lounge capability on the airport.
If I’m lacking one thing apparent concerning different potential places for the lounge, please let me know. However given the advance discover and approval that’s required from native authorities for lounge developments, it’s typically onerous to maintain this secret.
What does this imply for Delta’s SLC technique?
The primary 4 places that have been introduced for Delta One Lounges have been in aggressive markets, which aren’t fortress hubs for Delta. As you possibly can inform, Delta didn’t begin with its most dominant hubs — Atlanta (ATL), Detroit (DTW), Minneapolis (MSP), or Salt Lake Metropolis (SLC).
That’s most likely for a few causes, not the least of which is that airways don’t really feel like they should make investments as a lot within the passenger expertise of their fortress hubs.
Now we’ve seen a lounge introduced for Salt Lake Metropolis, which isn’t essentially the primary market that you simply’d assume would get such a lounge. Salt Lake Metropolis is at the moment Delta’s quickest rising core hub. Nonetheless, it’s overwhelmingly a home and regional hub for the airline, with restricted lengthy haul service.
At present Delta’s solely lengthy haul flights from Salt Lake Metropolis are to different SkyTeam hubs, together with Amsterdam (AMS), London (LHR), and Paris (CDG). Moreover, in 2025, Delta plans to launch a path to Seoul Incheon (ICN), one other SkyTeam hub. The Seoul Incheon route additionally represents Delta’s first lengthy haul route from the airport with an A350, so we may even see extra of these stationed there.
That being mentioned, what further lengthy haul development may we actually see out of Salt Lake Metropolis, particularly with the extent to which Delta is so centered on routing lengthy haul site visitors by means of three way partnership hubs?
- Throughout the Atlantic, I simply don’t see Delta increasing all that a lot to secondary markets, because it’s extra environment friendly for the airline to route individuals by means of locations like Atlanta and Detroit
- To Asia, it looks like this must come on the expense of some service from both Los Angeles or Seattle; possibly we may see a Tokyo flight, however I don’t see far more service than that
- With the LATAM three way partnership, maybe we may see some Delta South America service, although I don’t see that essentially being vastly profitable
- If something, possibly we’ll see extra service from companions, like Air France-KLM, LATAM, Scandinavian Airways, Virgin Atlantic, and many others.
So it’s doable that I’m lacking one thing, and that Delta has another huge plan right here. Or I believe it’s additionally doable that Salt Lake Metropolis is simply getting a Delta One Lounge because the timing is smart. The airline is actively engaged on opening an enormous new lounge on the airport, so it’s simple sufficient to transform a part of that into the Delta One Lounge.
In the meantime it’s a lot tougher to undertake such an initiative at an airport that’s already at capability, with out building.
Backside line
A Delta One Lounge is coming to Salt Lake Metropolis Airport, although we don’t have any particulars past that. My guess is that this will likely be a part of the brand new Delta Sky Membership coming to Concourse B, however possibly I’m lacking one thing.
This growth is noteworthy, as Salt Lake Metropolis is the primary Delta fortress hub that’s anticipated to get a Delta One Lounge. That’s attention-grabbing, as a result of it’s additionally the Delta fortress hub used least for lengthy haul, worldwide service.
What do you make of plans for the Delta One Lounge SLC?
