US major Delta Air Lines is to launch a second transatlantic flight from its Salt Lake City hub in summer 2015 with a new daily flight to Amsterdam from May 2015. As first revealed by our AirlineRoute schedules blog over the weekend, the new route will commence from May 1, 2015 on a five times weekly basis using a Boeing 767-300ER before growing to a daily schedule from May 17, 2015.
The new route will complement Delta’s existing flight between Salt Lake City and Paris and will provide links from the capital and the most populous city in the state of Utah to both the European hubs of Delta’s SkyTeam alliance partners, Air France and KLM. Salt Lake City became a Delta hub in 1987 when the carrier acquired Western Airlines and was expanded in the late 2000s following the integration of Northwest Airlines operations into the Delta brand. The US major now accounts for more than 70 per cent of the available annual seat capacity from the airport.
Delta introduced Salt Lake City’s first regular transatlantic connection to Europe in June 2008 when it inaugurated flights to Paris Charles de Gaulle (CDG) and has seen traffic on the route grow over the subsequent years through a mix of point-to-point demand and transfer passengers connecting across Europe and further afield via the Air France network.
According to MIDT data, bi-directional O&D passengers between Salt Lake City and Paris CDG have grown from 26,000 in Delta’s first full year of operations in 2009 to 29,000 last year, although there were falls in demand in both 2010 and 2011. But it is the wider European market that provides this route with additional passenger demand with around 190,000 passengers a year flying to and from the Continent from and to Salt Lake City.
The introduction of the new Salt Lake City – Amsterdam route may dilute demand on the existing flight to the French capital, but with added connection opportunities from Schiphol Airport through the KLM network, Delta will hope to further boost connectivity between the Utah city and the wider European market, particularly into the UK which is extensively served by the Dutch flag carrier.
In our analysis, below, we highlight the largest country markets in Europe for flights to and from Salt Lake City over the past five years. Interestingly, it is the United Kingdom that has the largest O&D flows to Salt Lake City (21.2 per cent share), ahead of France (17.1 per cent), Germany (14.2 per cent) and Italy (7.8 per cent). The Netherlands has an O&D demand of around 8,000 passengers a year, a 4.5 per cent share in 2013.
Data provided by 
The new long-haul route announcement from Delta followed in the same month that a ground breaking ceremony took place to mark the initiation of the Salt Lake City Department of Airports’ Terminal Redevelopment Program at the airport. The first stage kicks-off an eight to ten year project that will result in a new terminal and associated facilities at Salt Lake City International Airport.
The $1.8 billion project, funded by federal grants, user fees, general airport revenue bonds, and airport reserves, will be built in phases. A single terminal will be built southwest of the existing terminal complex featuring dual level access, new parking, and more spacious, modernised facilities. It is anticipated that the terminal will be completed in 2019.
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