Delta Announces New Non-Stop Service Between Indianapolis and Paris

On Wednesday, September 6th Delta Air Lines (DL) announced a new route between Indianapolis, Indiana (IND) and Paris, France (CDG) starting in May, 2018.

While the airline has yet to specify how many times a week the route will fly, we do know that it will be operated by one of the airline’s 767-300ER aircraft. Delta has outfitted these wide-body’s in a 3 class configuration consisting of 26 fully flat Delta One (business class) seats, 29 Delta Comfort+ seats, and 171 standard economy seats.

Here are the flight times for the new route (note the cool flight number paying homage to one of Indiana’s most famous attractions, this ones for you race fans).

I really like this route. In fact, Delta beat me to the punch, as I was in the midst of writing the second installment in my “Case For” series outlining why I believe Indianapolis deserved non-stop transatlantic service. If you missed the first installment, you can click here to read about why I think Columbus, OH is next in line to get one of these new routes to Europe.

But Why Indianapolis?

Indianapolis is low-key big. Like 15th largest population in the country big (just after Columbus which comes in at 14th in population). And make no mistake about it, this route isn’t just about origin and destination travel. It is about providing the state of Indiana with 1 stop connection opportunities to the rest of Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East via Paris.

For example, lets say someone wants to travel to Bangkok, Thailand (BKK) from Indianapolis. This is along the lines of what their routing would have looked like when before the Delta’s new flight to Paris.

Lets compare that to what it would look like after the new flight to CDG:

Looks a whole lot easier and direct, right? Cutting out a domestic transit in in the U.S. looks just that much more appealing. Now imagine flying this in economy… Every extra hour hurts, so this new route will give Delta a very competitive advantage over other carriers looking to transport “Hoosiers” internationally.

To the Point!

This is a great development not just for the state of Indiana, but for the Mid-Wester United States. Just this past month, we have seen Icelandic carrier WOW Air announce new service to 4 different cities in the region (Cleveland, Cincinnati, St. Louis, Detroit). Fellow Icelandic competitor Icelandair felt it had to get into the market and followed that up by adding non-stop service to Cleveland from its hub in Reykjavik.

Finally, the mid-west is getting some love internationally. This is great news for travelers looking to get across the pond to Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East from the Hoosier state.

 

*Featured Image Courtesy of VisitIndy.com