As Shanghai Pudong International Airport is home to one of China’s 3 largest airlines, China Eastern, it would stand to reason that felloe SkyTeam member Delta would also have a fairly significant presence there, which it did. Prior to the COVID-19 Pandemic, Shanghai was served from Seattle, Detroit, and Los Angeles, as well as Atlanta for a brief period in the late '00s. Additionally, Delta was planning on serving China’s largest city from Minneapolis in June 2020 until those plans were scuttled. Travel between the United States and China has been slow to recover, with only Detroit and Seattle seeing service to Shanghai. However, LAX-PVG is set to resume in a few days on June 1st, after a false restart last year. This isn’t the only change for Delta’s service to the Far East. The airline is going all-in on the A350 for its transpacific routes, with the A330s presumably being switched to European routes. Thus, I decided to get this one in while I still could.
Server: Solo
Airline: Delta Air Lines
Aircraft: Airbus A330-900neo
Origin: Shanghai Pudong International Airport, Pudong, China (PVG)
Destination: Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, SeaTac, Washington (SEA)
Flight Number: DL280
Route: ZSPD-KSEA
Seat: 8A (Delta One)
Time En Route: 10 Hours 33 Minutes
Boarding at PVG. In the past, Delta has served Shanghai with the 747-400, 777-200ER, and 777-200LR.
Jetbridges pulling away prior to pushback. We’re seated in the rearmost Delta One suite, giving a good deal of privacy for the roughly 10 and a half hour journey across the Pacific.
Taxiing out of the ramp from Terminal 2, which handles SkyTeam members’ flights at Pudong
Getting airborne from Shanghai
Sunset south of Jeju Island, South Korea
After a very relaxing sleep, we’re woken up with the announcement that we have just begun our initial descent into Seattle
Viewing the mountains of British Columbia, Canada, as we come through the cirrus layer
Arrival in a warm summer rainstorm in Seattle
Pulling into our gate at the International satellite terminal. Seattle is currently the largest transpacific hub for Delta, with daily flights to Tokyo, Seoul, Shanghai, and Taipei, although it’s rebuilding its network from LAX with the resumption of service to PVG and the addition of seasonal routes to AKL, BNE, and soon MEL.
Viewing our aircraft from the walkway connecting the satellite to the main terminal
