Delta Cancels Los Angeles To Tahiti Flights As Of Late 2025

I can’t say that I’m terribly surprised, but Delta Air Lines will be canceling one of its long haul routes as of late 2025, as flagged by @xJonNYC.

Delta will stop flying to French Polynesia

In December 2022, Delta launched a seasonal, 3x weekly flight between Los Angeles (LAX) and Papeete (PPT), in French Polynesia. The flight has been operating with the following schedule:

DL119 Los Angeles to Tahiti departing 11:40AM arriving 6:40PM
DL118 Tahiti to Los Angeles departing 8:40PM arriving 7:20AM (+1 day)

The 4,095-mile route has been operated by a Boeing 767-300ER, and has been blocked at 9hr westbound and 8hr40min eastbound. While the service has operated for three seasons, it’s soon coming to an end.

Currently the route is scheduled to be available through June 7, 2025, and then it was supposed to resume again as of October 7, 2025. However, Delta has just pulled all inventory for the route, so it’s no longer on sale, suggesting that this route is being cut.

With this reduction, Delta’s long haul destinations out of Los Angeles include Paris (CDG), Sydney (SYD), and Tokyo (HND), on a year-round basis, plus Auckland (AKL) and Brisbane (BNE), on a seasonal basis. Furthermore, Delta plans to add flights to Shanghai (PVG) as of June 2025, and flights to Melbourne (MEL) as of December 2025.

Why didn’t Delta’s service to Tahiti work out?

For context on the competitive landscape between the United States and Tahiti:

• Delta’s SkyTeam partner Air France flies between Los Angeles and Tahiti, as part of a “direct” flight from Paris
• Air Tahiti Nui flies from Tahiti to both Los Angeles and Seattle; the airline isn’t part of an alliance, but has partnerships with Alaska and American
• United flies between San Francisco and Tahiti
• Ultra low cost carrier French Bee flies between San Francisco and Tahiti, as part of a “direct” flight from Paris

I was surprised back when this service was added, so I can’t say that I’m surprised that it’s now being cut. For one, Delta partner Air France already operates the route, and offers a superior passenger experience, plus connectivity from Paris. So the incremental value of Delta adding service was limited.

Beyond that, though, Delta’s fundamental issue is that it lacks a West Coast fortress hub. For example, United has been operating service to Tahiti out of San Francisco on a year-round basis, and the ability to make that work comes down to how much connectivity the airline has there. Delta (and United, for that matter) does’t have that same level of service in Los Angeles.

Bottom line

In late 2022, Delta launched a 3x weekly, seasonal flight between Los Angeles and Tahiti. Unfortunately after a few seasons, this route will be canceled. As of October 2025, Delta will no longer fly to French Polynesia. On the plus side, Air France is a Delta partner, and continues to offer service in the market, so it’s not a huge loss. But that also makes you wonder why Delta added this service in the first place.

What do you make of Delta cutting its Tahiti flights?