Non-Stop International Flights from RDU (how much, transferring to, bankrupt)
Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, CaryThe Triangle Area
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Delta was $350 round trip from Raleigh to Barcelona for May/June a few weeks ago - those tickets are gone now though.
There's a subscription service called Scott's Cheap Flights that a lot of us younger people use - you set your home airports or any airports you're interested in, and they will email you whenever there's a good domestic or international flight deal from your airports that will save you at least 30% on normal fares (usually have 1-2 days to book the fare before the deal runs out so you need to decide quickly). It's $49/year but I always get a lot of value out of it.
This week for example I got in my email from Raleigh (round trip):
-Costa Rica $356 March-December
-Paris $486 March-May
-Cancun $234 February-May
-Casablanca $450 March-May, September-November
-Edinburgh $470 March-May, September-December
Thanks for the info. And lol at you get people. Do you think I’m 85?
Not surprised. Delta just announced that they're retiring all their 777s. This creates a scramble for aircraft to backfill, and they'll need the 767s that have been flying RDU-CDG. I suppose the choice was between three times a week on Air France using a 787 or daily on DL using a 757. If the AF flight does well, it could be upgraded to daily later.
When American gets more 787-900s and the first A321XLRs next year, I expect the 777 on RDU-LHR will be replaced.
For those who have credit card points - Air France picks a few US cities each month for points sales on their direct flights to Paris (for example, this month it's Boston/Chicago/Denver starting as low as 11,250 miles each way for economy). Hopefully Raleigh gets thrown in the mix sometime haha
Not surprised. Delta just announced that they're retiring all their 777s. This creates a scramble for aircraft to backfill, and they'll need the 767s that have been flying RDU-CDG. I suppose the choice was between three times a week on Air France using a 787 or daily on DL using a 757. If the AF flight does well, it could be upgraded to daily later.
When American gets more 787-900s and the first A321XLRs next year, I expect the 777 on RDU-LHR will be replaced.
It's not quite like that, but partially true. Delta retired all their 777's over 2 years ago. The 787 on Air France actually has more seats than the 767 that Delta is sending elsewhere. It remains to be seen if Delta comes back on the route in the Spring for Summer 2024 travel. At any rate, moving from 6x or 7x a week RDU-CDG to 3x or 4x a week is something Delta would likely have done too, for the slower winter travel season (slower US to/from Europe). They've been at that rate in the past in winters.
What this DOES do is free up the Delta 767 to go somewhere else, and it is quite possible they could decide to fly it RDU-another int'l destination. Such as AMS. There's a lot of issues why that's complicated to do right now, but it's a route RDU has wanted to get in place, and was about to finalize right before COVID hit in 2020. But KLM could just as easily fly the route RDU-AMS. They're all in a joint venture together as part of SkyTeam, so it is completely unimportant which airline owns the plane flying the route; they split the revenue 50/50
I'd frankly be surprised if Air France was here just for 6 months and then switches it back to Delta, but they could easily. Look for it to go back to 6x/7x RDU-CDG next March 30 - ish from whichever airline actually flies it. It's quite a successful route.
What this DOES do is free up the Delta 767 to go somewhere else, and it is quite possible they could decide to fly it RDU-another int'l destination. Such as AMS. There's a lot of issues why that's complicated to do right now, but it's a route RDU has wanted to get in place, and was about to finalize right before COVID hit in 2020. But KLM could just as easily fly the route RDU-AMS. They're all in a joint venture together as part of SkyTeam, so it is completely unimportant which airline owns the plane flying the route; they split the revenue 50/50
I'd frankly be surprised if Air France was here just for 6 months and then switches it back to Delta, but they could easily. Look for it to go back to 6x/7x RDU-CDG next March 30 - ish from whichever airline actually flies it. It's quite a successful route.
I suspect the 767-400 that is being released from RDU to CDG will be leveraged as part of the fleet for the new seasonal JFK - Buenos Aires route Delta is starting October 28. The end date for RDU - CDG on Delta metal corresponds with the start date of JFK - EZE in parallel.
The cut over date to Air France covering RDU to CDG also directly corresponds with the end of Air France seasonal 3x / week Quebec City - Paris service on a 787-900. They'll thus have a spare aircraft to cover for Delta on RDU - CDG so Delta can use the plane to Buenos Aires.
Air France should have better crew scheduling for RDU - CDG as well since Paris is their main crew and aircraft base. Delta was covering RDU - CDG with aircraft and crew that rotates from JFK - Paris - RDU - Paris - Atlanta since RDU isn't a Delta 767 base.
The 787 on Air France actually has more seats than the 767 that Delta is sending elsewhere.
Yes. Aside from a few older A330s that aren't fuel-efficient by modern standards, AF doesn't have any aircraft smaller than the 787 that could fly the route nonstop. Nor have they ordered any A321XLRs.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
