ATLANTA, Sept. 25, 2007 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL) is poised to add nonstop flights between the world's largest airline hub in Atlanta and Shanghai, China*, effective March 30, 2008, based on a ruling issued today by the U.S. Department of Transportation.
"We applaud Secretary Peters and the Department of Transportation for recognizing that nonstop Delta flights between Atlanta and Shanghai will bring more value to airline customers than any competing route application," said Delta Chief Executive Officer Richard Anderson. "Delta's new flights to China will fill a critical void in air travel today by providing the 65 million residents of the Southeast with direct access to the world's fastest growing economy."
Nearly 70,000 people supported Delta's application to serve Shanghai from Atlanta, including more than 80 federal, state and local officials; and more than 80 companies, airports, business, tourism and professional organizations.
Delta plans to provide daily nonstop service between Atlanta and China using its flagship Boeing 777 aircraft in a two-class configuration featuring BusinessElite, Delta's award-winning business class service. Additionally, Delta plans to introduce fully horizontal lie-flat seats on its Boeing 777 fleet beginning in 2008, with new in-seat entertainment system offering on-demand, digital video and music at every suite.
Delta Air Lines operates service to more destinations than any global airline with Delta and Delta Connection flights to 315 destinations in 54 countries. Since 2005, Delta has added more international capacity than all other major U.S. airlines combined and is a leader across the Atlantic with flights to 36 trans-Atlantic markets. To Latin America and the Caribbean, Delta offers nearly 400 weekly flights to 54 destinations. Delta's marketing alliances also allow customers to earn and redeem SkyMiles on nearly 15,000 flights offered by SkyTeam and other partners. Delta is a founding member of SkyTeam, a global airline alliance that provides customers with extensive worldwide destinations, flights and services. Including its SkyTeam and worldwide codeshare partners, Delta offers flights to 477 worldwide destinations in 103 countries. Customers can check in for flights, print boarding passes and check flight status at delta.com.
*Subject to foreign government approval
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Statements in this news release that are not historical facts, including statements regarding our estimates, expectations, beliefs, intentions, projections or strategies for the future, may be "forward-looking statements" as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All forward-looking statements involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the estimates, expectations, beliefs, intentions, projections and strategies reflected in or suggested by the forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the cost of aircraft fuel; the impact that our indebtedness will have on our financial and operating activities and our ability to incur additional debt; the restrictions that financial covenants in our financing agreements will have on our financial and business operations; labor issues; interruptions or disruptions in service at one of our hub airports; our increasing dependence on technology in our operations; our ability to retain management and key employees; the ability of our credit card processors to take significant holdbacks in certain circumstances; the effects of terrorist attacks; and competitive conditions in the airline industry. Additional information concerning risks and uncertainties that could cause differences between actual results and forward-looking statements is contained in Delta's Securities and Exchange Commission filings, including its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2006 and its Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarterly period ended June 30, 2007. Caution should be taken not to place undue reliance on Delta's forward-looking statements, which represent Delta's views only as of Sept. 25, 2007, and which Delta has no current intention to update.
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