Delta Airlines announced two new European routes for Boston in the summer of 2026 on Wednesday, with Beantown doubled as competition continues to heat up.
The airline will fly from Boston Logan International Airport (BOS) to Adolfo Suarez Madrid-Barajas Airport (MAD) from May 16, and head to Nice Cott Azur Airport (NCE) in southern France on May 17.
Madrid and Nice brought the Delta total from Boston’s summer transatlantic destinations to more than a dozen, joining a huge lineup that includes flights to Amsterdam; Athens, Greece; Barcelona; Paris; Dublin; Edinburgh, Scotland; Rome; London; Lisbon, Portugal; and Milan.
Delta also said it will allow Josep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat Airport (BCN) to fly from Boston to this week three times a day from next summer, and will start seasonal service on May 7, earlier this year. Seasonal services at Milan Malpsa Airport (MXP) will be operated four times a week next summer, but flights will begin on May 16, about a week earlier than this year.
Delta will run BOS-MAD flights every day, three BOS-NCE flights a week. Both flights will be on Delta’s Airbus A330-900NEO.
“As a leading airline in Boston, Delta plays a crucial role in connecting the city to the world,” said Paul Baldoni, senior vice president of network planning at Delta, in a statement. “By adding uninterrupted services to Madrid and Nice, we are enhancing our European network and continuing our commitment to delivering an excellent travel experience from start to finish.”
Boston has been a very desirable city for Delta, and it has struggled to compete in the market since the coronavirus pandemic. The airline’s two largest overall competitors – American Airlines and United Airlines – are both in the Delta’s presence in the Gulf State.
Instead, Delta’s main competitor in Boston is JetBlue. According to aviation analysis company Cirium, Delta operated a total of 80,513 flights to sail towards Boston in 2019, and JetBlue dominated the flight with 114,936 flights that year.
As the aviation industry begins to recover from the pandemic shutdown, Delta has put more resources into Boston, screaming with 2023 flights, thus surpassing JetBlue and surpassing New York-based boutiques every year since.
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Still, JetBlue is a tenacious competitor to the domestic Boston market, and recently on the transatlantic route. Last summer, the airline flew to MAD with a trip to Edinburgh Airport (EDI).
Delta declined to say whether the new BOS-MAD flight was caused directly by JetBlue’s flight between cities, but rather that it is continuing to build its Boston hub, regardless of the opportunity and demand it sees.
“The real motivation is the largest transatlantic market for flying,” Amy Martin, vice president of network planning at Delta Air Lines, told TPG at a conference in Boston. “We are based on what our customers hear and viewing the success of existing markets.”
When Delta defends its title as Boston’s largest airline, the airline plans to continue to expand its gate capacity allowable in BOS, including the city’s A330-900NEO crew.
“We’ve been talking about the size we can make for Boston,” Martin said. “We’re focusing on domestic growth as well as international growth.”
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