COVID-19 Forces Delay in Delta’s new Long-Haul Route

The continuing coronavirus plague just forced Delta Air Lines to delay the debut of one of its most talked-about long-haul routes in years.

Delta’s new flight from its headquarters in Atlanta to Johannesburg, South Africa, and then on to Cape Town, South Africa was slated for March 27. But according to the aviation blog The Points Guy, the debut of the route has been pushed to June 1.

South Africa is in the midst of another COVID-19 outbreak, including the new variant strain that is more contagious.

“We continue to adjust our flight schedules in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, travel restrictions and customer demand,” Delta said in a statement to TPG. “As a result of this, we have delayed the planned restart of operations between Johannesburg and Atlanta, plus the launch of our new Cape Town service. We plan to relaunch these flights once the situation allows. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause to our customers.”

The virus has caused numerous interruptions with this route. Delta had planned to start flights on Oct. 24, 2000. That was delayed to Jan. 8, 2021, and that was delayed to March 27.

The Points Guy noted that Delta previously has operated flights from Atlanta to Johannesburg with a Boeing 777, but when the fleet was retired last year the carrier switched over to its Airbus A350 and created the so-called triangle route from Atlanta to Johannesburg to Cape Town.