Delta Air Lines A350-900 Detroit to Shanghai

Since the late 1980s, coinciding with Northwest Airlines’s acquisition of locally-based Republic Airlines and the introduction of the Boeing 747-400, Detroit has been a major transpacific hub, with non-stop services to Beijing, Tokyo-Narita, Osaka-Kansai, Nagoya, and Shanghai. Upon merging with NW in 2009, Delta inherited this network and the 747s. Over the past 15 or so years, however, Delta’s transpacific network from DTW has shrunk drastically as the airline has cut unprofitable routes, the most recent one being Nagoya in 2022, while also inaugurating non-stop service to Seoul. Currently, all transpacific flights from DTW, the longest of which is today’s flight, use the Airbus A350-900, replacing the 747-400, 777-200ER, 777-200LR, and A330-200.

Server: Solo
Airline: Delta Air Lines
Aircraft: Airbus A350-900
Origin: Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport, Romulus, Michigan (DTW)
Destination: Shanghai Pudong International Airport, Pudong, China (PVG)
Flight Number: DL389
Route: KDTW-ZSPD
Seat: 8A (Delta One)
Time En Route: 16 Hours 27 Minutes

Pushing back and starting up Engine 1

Taxiing out for departure


Takeoff from Motown

Crossing the Gulf of Alaska

Turning west over Sendai, Japan

Final descent with the airport in sight to our left

Afternoon arrival in Shanghai

Passing the Satellite Terminal as we taxi to Terminal 1

Deplaned in the Golden Hour at Shanghai

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@arlin1 APPROVED

nice pics anyway!

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Thank you!

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The last flight was in February 2023, I remember staying at the cold, dark spotting deck so that I could get to watch decades of a Detroit connection come to an end. Spotting trips to Nagoya just don’t feel the same without a Delta A330-200 touching down in the evening… I hope they’ll return but I feel that it ain’t happening.

Nice pics with the A350!

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Yeah it was one of those relatively unique routes, like United’s SFO-CTU route with the 787-8