Delta To American: Back Off, Atlanta Will Bump Dallas As World’s Top Hub

Delta Air Lines says its Atlanta hub will reclaim the status it lost to American’s Dallas hub in the disarranged world of post-pandemic flying.

“With nearly 75 additional daily departures compared to summer 2024, this growth reaffirms its place as the world’s largest airline hub,” the carrier said Friday in a press release entitled “Delta at ATL: Bigger and bolder at the world’s largest airline hub in summer 2025.”

The Atlanta hub summer schedule will include 968 daily departures, service to 215 destinations and 1.1 million weekly seats, Delta said.

Before the pandemic, Delta routinely operated around 1,000 daily departures from Atlanta, which was easily the world’s largest single airline hub.

But that equation was upended as American pursued a strategy of Sunbelt growth, restoring flying early in the summer of 2020 and consistently pouring capacity into Charlotte and Dallas.

By this summer, American operated the world’s largest single airline hub at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, where it has 925 daily departures. At Atlanta this summer, Delta operates 830 daily departures. The third largest single airline hub is Charlotte, where American has 690 daily departures.

Part of American’s strategy has been to surround Atlanta with Charlotte to the east and Dallas to the west. But Delta has apparently had enough of American’s challenge to Atlanta and Sunbelt flex. American did not respond to emails questioning its summer 2025 DFW schedule.

“For Delta, Atlanta is more than a hub—it’s home,” Delta said. “That’s why in summer 2025, Delta will introduce its largest-ever schedule from Atlanta, offering customers even more destinations, increased frequencies and enhanced premium experiences that highlight the airline’s commitment to supporting the city’s growth.

Delta said its international footprint from Atlanta also continues to grow, with 66 international destinations.

Transatlantic destinations with new or increased service include Athens, Barcelona, Brussels; Catania, Sicily; Dublin, Milan Naples, Rome and Zurich. Delta plans its largest-ever transatlantic summer schedule.

Domestically from Atlanta, Delta plans its largest-ever schedule in Georgia with 20% more intra-state seats to Savannah, Augusta, Albany, Brunswick, Columbus and Valdosta, “reinforcing Delta’s commitment to improving regional connectivity across the Peach State,” the carrier said.

The airline industry’s move to premium seating, which has been led by Delta, is also reflected in the carrier’s 2025 plans for Atlanta. The Atlanta hub will offer 41,000 daily premium seats—including Delta One, First Class, Delta Premium Select and Delta Comfort. Premium capacity will increase by 9% over summer 2024.

Also, Delta said 87% of ATL departures will be operated on mainline aircraft—an increase from 79% in 2019.

At all three of the key Sunbelt hubs, the size of the mainline aircraft is generally larger than pre-pandemic, as the Airbus A321 and newer Boeing 737s have replaced smaller models, so passenger count has generally increased. Also, the Charlotte and Dallas hubs have higher percentages of regional jets than Atlanta does.

Atlanta remains the world’s largest airport by passengers, with 102 million in 2023, compared to 78 million at Dallas. Delta carried about 70% of all Atlanta passengers in 2023. Delta said it has “contributed significantly” to the airport’s $10.8 billion redevelopment program, which during the past decade has included expanding Concourse D.

“Atlanta travelers also enjoy Delta’s highly convenient schedules,” Delta said. “With 56 markets featuring eight or more daily flights, Delta offers the frequency that both business travelers and families need for easy planning.”

A recent report by OAG ranks airports by combining two components: the number of available connections and the number of destinations. According to the report, Atlanta is the 11^th most connected hub in the world. Also, Atlanta is the second most connected domestic hub in the U.S., behind Chicago (which has hubs for both American and United), but ahead of number three Dallas and number four Charlotte.