Like the other two legacy carrier, Delta Air Lines has made a habit of using widebody aircraft between its major hubs to maximize capacity on certain routes and reposition aircraft, e.g. a Delta A350 that arrived from Sydney and is supposed to go to Cape Town the next day flies one of the numerous daily flights between Los Angeles and Atlanta, which is exactly what we’re doing today. Delta has been doing this since the days of the 777-200ER and -200LR, and travelers who want to experience flying on one of these gigantic aircraft without having to spend upwards of 12 hours in the air have a prime opportunity to do so on one of the airline’s busiest routes. This is going to start up a series of SkyTeam flights around the U.S. and maybe even one or two abroad.
Server: Solo
Airline: Delta Air Lines
Aircraft: Airbus A350-900
Origin: Los Angeles International Airport, Los Angeles, California (LAX)
Destination: Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Atlanta, Georgia (ATL)
Flight Number: DL515
Route: KLAX-KATL
Seat: 37A (Main Cabin)
Time En Route: 4 Hours 14 Minutes
Waiting to board and watching the traffic at Gate 133 at the Tom Bradley International Airport on an unusually warm January day. Our aircraft for this short (for one of Delta’s A350-900s) flight is one of the older, 306-seat airframes with a 32J/42W/226M configuration, as opposed to the newer 35H version with a 40J/40W/195M configuration.
Taxiing to Runway 24L for departure with the Santa Monica Mountains in the background. Though we were almost locked in when we got here at around 6:15 A.M., the Marine Layer has boiled off rapidly, giving us mostly clear skies for takeoff.
Rocket takeoff from LAX! With a relatively light fuel load, we’re climbing out of LAX in no time at all, with some pretty impressive vortices coming off of our wingtips. As far as what’s inside the plane is concerned, we’re in a standard economy seat, with only the aisle seat in our row occupied. Plenty of elbow room on this trip!
Turning by Palos Verdes in our climbout to the south before turning east over Los Alamitos. Looking northeast, we can see Hermosa, Manhattan, and Redondo Beach, El Segundo, LAX, and Marina Del Rey. Always love a scenic climb from Los Angeles!
Cruising at 39,000 feet near Prescott, Arizona. The cabin crew have served us what’s advertised as a bistro snack box, which, while not what we’ve had in Delta One, is tasty enough for a roughly 4 and a half-hour flight. Additionally, the biscoff cookies are delicious as usual.
Somewhere over Oklahoma, about 2 hours out from our destination. We were actually able to take a quick power nap, something we aren’t often able to do on a daytime economy flight.
Descending into the Atlanta area over northeast Alabama. Right now, we’re finishing Season 9 of Curb Your Enthusiansm on the seatback IFE system. In our opinion, this is one of the better seasons, particularly anything related to the musical around which much of the plot takes place in the shadow of.
Afternoon arrival in Atlanta on Runway R by the Delta TechOps hangar with the enormous ATL ATC tower in the background. This facility handles thousands of flights a day, over 1,000 of them from Delta alone, to hundreds of destinations, day in and day out. All in all, it’s a extremely impressive operation down here in the Peach State.
Taxiing across Runway 26L to our gate. As always, Hartsfield-Jackson is incredibly busy. We counted half a dozen 737s, about as many A319s, A320s, A321s, and A320neos, a couple of 767s, and another A350 in line for takeoff as we turned off the runway, and that’s from Delta alone on this side of the airport!
Parked at Gate T2A and ready for our 1-day layover in Atlanta