Delta Air Lines ready to fly to China

Delta Air Lines has fulfilled a decade-long goal of conveniently connecting customers to and from China with the inaugural of the first-ever nonstop flight between Atlanta and Shanghai.

“As the airline serving more worldwide destinations than any other carrier, Delta is uniquely positioned to connect the commerce and culture of multiple regions of the world to and from China,” said Lee Macenczak, Delta’s executive vice president of Sales and Marketing.

“This flight will establish Atlanta as a powerful new Chinese gateway by providing new connectivity and convenience for passengers from across the U.S., as well as Central and South America and the Caribbean.”

With the new route, customers flying to or from 47 of the more than 240 destinations served by Delta nonstop from Atlanta will gain their first online one-stop connections to Shanghai. Atlanta customers will enjoy time savings of at least three hours over existing one-stop itineraries via other U.S. or Asian gateways.

Nearly 70,000 people from around the world supported Delta’s application to the U.S. Department of Transportation to serve Shanghai from Atlanta, underscoring the competitive and economic importance of the route. Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue, who was among the leaders of the campaign to secure the new route, will lead a delegation of more than a dozen economic development and trade officials to China on the inaugural flight.

"Delta's international focus is a tremendous complement to our Global Georgia initiative, and in particular, the opening of our office in China next week,” Perdue said. “We will continue to support this great Georgia company as it connects our state to new destinations across the world, boosting Georgia’s economic development and tourism efforts."