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Delta doubles down on Boston with new Europe routes for summer 2026

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Delta Air Lines on Wednesday announced two new Europe routes out of Boston for summer 2026, doubling down on Beantown as competition over the city continues to heat up.

The airline will begin flying from Boston Logan International Airport (BOS) to Adolfo Suárez Madrid–Barajas Airport (MAD) starting May 16 and to Nice Cote d’Azur Airport (NCE) in southern France on May 17.

Madrid and Nice bring Delta’s total count of summer transatlantic destinations from Boston to an even dozen, joining a hefty lineup that includes flights to Amsterdam; Athens, Greece; Barcelona; Paris; Dublin; Edinburgh, Scotland; Rome; London; Lisbon, Portugal; and Milan.

Delta also said that it would make Josep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat Airport (BCN) a daily flight from Boston next summer, up from three times per week this year, and start the seasonal service May 7, earlier than this year. Seasonal service to Milan Malpensa Airport (MXP) will operate four times per week again next summer, but flights will start May 16, about a week earlier than this year.

Delta will operate the BOS-MAD flight daily and the BOS-NCE flight three times weekly. Both flights will be aboard Delta’s Airbus A330-900neo.

“As Boston’s leading airline, Delta plays a vital role in connecting the city to the world,” Paul Baldoni, Delta’s senior vice president of network planning, said in a statement. “By adding nonstop service to Madrid and Nice, we’re enhancing our European network and continuing our commitment to providing an exceptional travel experience from start to finish.”

Boston has been a highly desirable city for Delta, which has pushed hard to compete in the market since before the coronavirus pandemic. The airline’s two biggest overall competitors — American Airlines and United Airlines — both have a fraction of Delta’s presence in the Bay State.

Instead, Delta’s main competitor in Boston has been JetBlue. In 2019, Delta operated a total of 80,513 flights into and out of Boston, according to data from aviation analytics firm Cirium, while JetBlue dominated that year with 114,936 flights.

As the airline industry began to recover from the pandemic shutdowns, Delta threw more resources into Boston, squeaking past JetBlue in terms of total number of flights in 2023 and surpassing the New York-based boutique carrier every year since.

Still, JetBlue has been a dogged competitor in the domestic Boston market and, lately, on transatlantic routes as well. The carrier launched its own flight to MAD this past summer, along with service to Edinburgh Airport (EDI).

Delta declined to say whether the new BOS-MAD flight was directly prompted by JetBlue flying between the cities but instead said that it was continuing to build out its Boston hub wherever it sees opportunities and demand.

“The true motivation is to fly the largest underserved transatlantic markets,” Amy Martin, Delta’s vice president of network planning, told TPG at a meeting in Boston. “We’re flying places based on what we hear from customers, and looking at successes of existing markets.”

As Delta defends its title as Boston’s biggest airline, the carrier plans to continue expanding as much as its gate capacity at BOS allows, including basing A330-900neo crews in the city.

“We’re always discussing how big we can make Boston,” Martin said. “We’re looking at domestic growth as well as international.”

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