Delta Air Lines is beefing up its transatlantic plans for next year.
The Atlanta-based carrier announced a new route on Friday for its 2027 peak summer travel season.
Delta will fly between Boston Logan International Airport (BOS) and Iceland’s Keflavík International Airport (KEF) near Reykjavík with daily nonstop seasonal service starting on April 12 and running through Oct. 30, 2027.
KEF will represent Delta’s 14th long-haul destination from BOS, where the airline has fought for passenger share since the return of travel following the COVID-19 pandemic.
The new route will join three other newcomers for the 2027 travel season:
- Boston Logan International Airport (BOS) to Venice (VCE), launching on May 7
- Detroit Wayne County Metropolitan Airport (DTW) to Athens (ATH), launching June 8
- Austin Bergstrom International Airport (AUS) to Paris Charles de Gaulle (CDG), launching March 27
Delta will fly the new BOS-KEF route with a Boeing 757-200 featuring a Premium Select cabin with recliner seats rather than the carrier’s Delta One cabin that reatures lie-flat seats. Boston to Reykjavík typically takes about 5 hours, though, so it’s a short hop, at least.
Delta’s 15-year history with Iceland
Delta first flew to Iceland in June 2011, the airline said, when it began service from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK).
But this is not Delta’s first time flying to Iceland from Boston. The airline first launched the route in May of 2021, as post-lockdown travel was just starting up again.
That service was also flown on the 757-200, and was discontinued in September of that year, according to data from Cirium. Delta has not flown the route since then.
Delta’s continued competition for Boston
While the new iteration of the service covers the busy summer travel season, it notably spills over to cover “shoulder season” before and after peak summer, when travelers who are not locked to the academic calendar can often find smaller crowds and shorter queues at top summer destinations — not to mention better deals.
A growing number of travelers have been drawn to shoulder season in recent years, enough so that airlines are increasingly starting their summer schedules earlier, and running them later. All of Delta’s new flights start earlier or end later than the traditional summer flight schedule.
For Boston, meanwhile, the Iceland route serves to underscore Delta’s emphasis on the Bay State capital, where it competes fiercely with JetBlue to be the New England city’s top airline. Delta’s two biggest overall competitors — American Airlines and United Airlines — both have a fraction of Delta’s presence in Boston.
For the summer 2026 travel season, Delta added flights to Madrid and Nice from BOS, and increased frequencies to Barcelona. JetBlue, meanwhile, has focused its small but growing transatlantic operation on Boston, as well as JFK, further underscoring the competition.
In 2019, Delta operated a total of 80,513 flights into and out of Boston, according to data from Cirium, while JetBlue dominated that year with 114,936 flights.
While the pandemic interrupted the airlines’ growth, Delta managed to squeak past JetBlue in terms of total number of flights in 2023, and has remained on top since then.
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Source: thepointsguy.com
