OREANDA-NEWS. Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL) is celebrating 25 years of flying between Dublin and the United States. Delta's maiden flight to Dublin in June 1988 was via Shannon from Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport and was operated by a Lockheed L-1011-500 wide body aircraft.

The service initially started as five times weekly with a 12.05pm departure from Dublin, and a journey time of 10 hours. Today, Delta's daily Dublin-Atlanta route is nonstop and serviced by an Airbus A330-200with a journey time of 8h 29mins.

The route was Delta's second direct service from Ireland, commencing two years after the airline introduced its first flight between Ireland and the U.S., starting operations between Shannon and Atlanta in May 1986. Since its first transatlantic flight in 1986, Delta has flown over 4 million passengers between Ireland and the U.S. and now operates a daily year round service from Dublin to New York-JFK, a flight between Dublin and Atlanta, as well as a summer season route between Shannon and New York-JFK.

“There are important ancestral, economic and tourism links between Ireland and the U.S. and Delta has a long and proud history of operating between these two countries” said Perry Cantarutti, Delta Air Lines SVP-Europe, Middle East and Africa. “Our nonstop flights from both Dublin and Shannon provide our customers with convenient travel options to over 200 destinations throughout the U.S., Latin America and the Caribbean, via our hubs of New York-JFK and Atlanta.”

Delta currently operates 24 weekly flights between Ireland and the U.S. This summer, Delta boosted its capacity between Dublin and New York, JFK, adding three weekly flights to its all year round daily service and is flying daily from Dublin to Atlanta and Shannon to New York JFK. In addition to the extra weekly frequency on the route, Delta will serve its daily Dublin to New York service over the summer period with a B767-300ER aircraft featuring Delta's BusinessElite fully flat-bed seat and its premium economy section - 'Economy Comfort'. These flights are operated in conjunction with joint venture partners Air France KLM and Alitalia.

Congratulating Delta on 25 years of service, Dublin Airport Authority's Director of Strategy, Vincent Harrison said “Delta has been a much valued and successful partner for Dublin Airport throughout a quarter of a century of doing business at the airport.”

Delta is making a number of significant investments in its products and services to improve its customer's experience on the ground and in the air throughout 2013. These include Delta's state-of-the-art, USD 1.4bn Terminal 4 at New York-JFK that opened on 24 May. Customers flying between Dublin and New York-JFK this summer will benefit from a greatly enhanced airport experience on arrival and departure at the airport. One of the largest terminals in North America, Terminal 4 offers travellers a spacious environment with a wide variety of shopping and dining options. For BusinessElite customers, the Delta Sky Club at Terminal 4 features a Sky Deck - an outdoor airport terrace offering unprecedented runway views. Passengers departing from Atlanta can now also enjoy Delta's signature outdoor space, the Sky Deck.