Delta Air Lines (DL, Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson) has announced it will resume scheduled flights to China on June 25, initially operating 2x weekly from Seattle Tacoma International via Seoul Incheon to Shanghai Pudong using A350-900 aircraft.

Delta said that as of July, it would continue weekly flights from Seattle, while the second weekly service will operate from Detroit Metropolitan (also via Seoul). The carrier is the first United States-based airline to restore scheduled passenger flights to China following the COVID-induced suspension in February 2020.

As of August 1, 2020, the airline plans to replace the A350s with A330-900s on both routes.

According to the ch-aviation schedules module, the US-China scheduled passenger market is currently exclusively served by Chinese carriers, namely Air China (CA, Beijing Capital) (weekly flights from Beijing Capital via Tianjin to Los Angeles International), China Southern Airlines (CZ, Guangzhou) (weekly flights from Guangzhou to Los Angeles), Xiamen Airlines (MF, Xiamen) (4x weekly from Shenzhen to Los Angeles and 4x weekly from Xiamen to Los Angeles), and China Eastern Airlines (MU, Shanghai Hongqiao) (2x weekly from Shanghai to New York JFK).

The news follows the announcement by the US Department of Transportation (DOT) that authorities in China had approved US carriers to operate 4x weekly flights from the US to China and vice versa.