Delta Air Lines’ top 15 international routes this month

Delta Air Lines serves 77 international airports in February, although that will increase to 95 for the year. On a typical February day, Cirium Diio data shows Delta has 238 take-offs to international destinations (each way).

That's its third-best February on record, surpassed only by 2019 (246 daily departures) and 2020 (245).

Top 15 international routes: February

This month, the SkyTeam member has nearly 200 international routes. They are from 16 US airports, including Las Vegas, with a one-off service to Amsterdam on Valentine's Day.

Atlanta has more than double the number of take-offs as second-placed New York JFK, influenced by shorter-haul services. Minneapolis, Detroit, and Seattle complete the top five.

Its top 15 international airport pairs are shown below. The cut-off point is 80 take-offs.

Compared to February 2024, Atlanta to Cancun has overtaken New York LaGuardia to Toronto for the top spot. This is mainly because the Canadian link now has 16% fewer services than last year.

Notice the two long-haul routes, double the number available in February 2024. That was when only Detroit to Amsterdam made the busiest 15 routes.

Atlanta to London Heathrow is also present, as February flights have risen from double to triple daily. This has pushed Atlanta to Toronto out of the list.

A look at Atlanta to Cancun

With 186 departures (each way), the route has more service than any other February, even in leap years. This article was researched and written on February 14, a day with seven take-offs. They are as follows from Atlanta:

• 07:30, getting back at 14:07 (A321ceo)
• 08:30, returning at 15:10 (A321ceo)
• 09:55, getting back at 16:35 (A321ceo)
• 11:05, returning at 17:50 (757-200)
• 12:32, getting back at 19:13 (A321ceo)
• 13:45, returning at 20:28 (A321ceo)
• 18:25, which overnights and gets back at 10:39 the next day (737-900ER)

Flashback to February 2024

Anything related to traffic (rather than capacity) is retrospective. Despite this, it is insightful. Examining US Department of Transportation data for February 2024 shows that Delta carried 60,400 roundtrip Atlanta-Cancun passengers and filled 89% of seats.

This one international route accounted for 8% of the carrier's international traffic from its busiest hub.

An estimated two-thirds of the passengers connected to another flight in Atlanta. Raleigh Durham was the most popular market, followed by Indianapolis, Sioux Falls, Omaha, and Nashville.