Delta Air Lines to Stop Direct Flights from Los Angeles to Tahiti After June 2025 – Travel And Tour World

Saturday, March 15, 2025
Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines will permanently halt its nonstop service between Los Angeles (LAX) and Papeete (PPT) in French Polynesia after June 7, 2025.
The carrier has officially pulled all inventory for the route beyond this date, confirming that its seasonal flights to Tahiti will not return as previously scheduled in October 2025, according to industry insights from JonNYC.

Delta Discontinues Tahiti Flights After Three Seasons

First launched in December 2022, the LAX–PPT route was operated seasonally by Delta using Boeing 767-300ER aircraft, running three times a week. The westbound flight, DL119, typically departed Los Angeles at 11:40 a.m. and landed in Tahiti at 6:40 p.m., with the return leg DL118 departing Papeete at 8:40 p.m. and arriving back in Los Angeles by 7:20 a.m. the following morning.
Spanning a distance of 4,095 miles, the flight took around 9 hours westbound and 8 hours and 40 minutes eastbound. Despite completing three consecutive seasons, the route will be discontinued mid-2025, as highlighted by travel site OMAAT.

Delta Refocuses Long-Haul Strategy from LAX

With Tahiti dropped from its map, Delta’s long-haul international presence from Los Angeles will continue to include year-round flights to Paris (CDG), Sydney (SYD), and Tokyo Haneda (HND), alongside seasonal service to Auckland (AKL) and Brisbane (BNE).
Delta is simultaneously shifting its global expansion strategy, adding new routes to Shanghai (PVG) beginning June 2025 and launching Melbourne (MEL) flights in December 2025—moves that signal a strategic pivot toward more economically viable and high-demand international corridors.

Competitive Dynamics in the Tahiti Market

The withdrawal from the Tahiti market underscores growing competition and operational challenges faced by Delta on the West Coast. Despite being a SkyTeam member, Delta lacks the dominant hub presence in Los Angeles that rivals such as United Airlines enjoy in San Francisco. This absence of robust domestic feed traffic puts Delta at a comparative disadvantage when sustaining niche international routes like Tahiti.
United, for example, continues to operate year-round nonstop flights from San Francisco to Papeete, leveraging its SFO hub to funnel passengers from across North America.
Air France, also a SkyTeam partner, remains a strong player on the Los Angeles–Tahiti route, providing seamless Paris–Papeete connectivity. Its enhanced service quality and broader European connections may have diminished the strategic value of Delta’s separate operation.
Air Tahiti Nui further bolsters connectivity with flights from both Los Angeles and Seattle, working through interline and codeshare agreements with Alaska Airlines and American Airlines—despite not being part of a major global alliance.
French Bee, an ultra-low-cost carrier, also competes in the market with its San Francisco–Tahiti service via Paris, catering to cost-conscious travelers.

Strategic Realignment over Market Redundancy

Delta’s exit likely reflects a broader realignment in response to market redundancy and profit pressure. With Air France offering a comparable, and in some cases superior, product on the same route, Delta’s presence may have simply overlapped rather than complemented the alliance’s overall network.
Through existing codeshare agreements, Delta customers will still be able to access French Polynesia on Air France flights, maintaining alliance connectivity even after the route’s termination.
Ultimately, the decision appears to be a calculated move to redeploy resources toward more sustainable and strategically aligned international growth areas—particularly in Asia-Pacific markets where Delta sees stronger long-term demand and network synergy.

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Tags: Airline News, Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, Atlanta, Boeing 767, delta air lines, french polynesia, Los Angeles, north america, papeete, San Francisco, Tahiti, Travel News