Delta Air Lines will begin daily nonstop flights between Austin-Bergstrom International Airport and Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport starting March 27, 2027, giving Central Texas travelers direct access to a market that has gone unserved since a planned 2020 route collapsed during the pandemic. The airline will fly the route using an Airbus A330-900neo configured with 281 seats, including 29 lie-flat Delta One suites, with flight DL100 departing Austin at 3:15 p.m. and DL99 leaving Paris at 10:10 a.m.
The route marks Delta's third international nonstop out of Austin and makes it the only U.S.-based airline offering direct transatlantic service from the airport, according to KXAN Austin. Delta will now compete directly against three European carriers already flying transatlantic out of AUS — British Airways to London Heathrow, Lufthansa to Frankfurt, and KLM to Amsterdam — as reported by Aviation Week. Through Delta's joint venture with Air France-KLM, passengers connecting through Charles de Gaulle will also gain one-stop access to nearly 70 destinations across Europe, India, and Africa, according to a statement from Delta Air Lines.
A Route Years in the Making
Paris has been on Austin-Bergstrom's radar for years. Norwegian Air announced in October 2019 that it would launch Austin-Paris flights in May 2020, only to cancel the route because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the airline later confirmed it would not revive the plan at a later date, per KXAN. Sabre Market Intelligence data recorded roughly 51,100 two-way travelers between Austin and Paris in 2025, making it the airport's second-largest unserved European market behind London's 181,700 passengers, Aviation Week reports.
Airport officials, including aviation director Kevin Schorr, had identified Paris as one of 12 international cities considered priority routes, a list that also includes Bogotá, Dubai, Dublin, Guadalajara, Istanbul, Lima, Montego Bay, Reykjavík, San José, Seoul and Tokyo, per KXAN. To help land new international service, Austin-Bergstrom offers airlines incentives set in 2019 and amended in 2021, including up to $500,000 in advertising and marketing support over two years along with waived airport fees, the outlet notes.
Delta's Broader Austin Buildout
The Paris launch is part of a larger expansion for Delta at Austin-Bergstrom, where the carrier is already the second-largest airline by passengers behind Southwest Airlines. The airline plans to scale operations at AUS to more than 70 peak-day departures by summer 2027, according to Aviation Week, adding a second daily flight to San Jose, California in April 2027 and a separate new daily nonstop to San Diego on April 12, 2027, per KXAN. Delta will also upgrade its Cancún service from seasonal to year-round and continues operating flights to Cancún and San José del Cabo, the outlet reports.
Delta opened a permanent flight attendant base at Austin-Bergstrom in October 2025 to support that growth, and the airline reported passenger totals through June 2026 up 16.7% compared with the same period last year, following a 15% increase in 2025 over 2024, per KXAN. Delta president Peter Carter said the airline's commitments reflect a shared vision with Austin leadership for an efficient airport that can absorb growth and serve families and businesses, according to the outlet.
Airport Construction Reshapes the Airfield
Delta's expansion arrives as Austin-Bergstrom works through a multibillion-dollar buildout tied to its Journey With AUS capital program. The airport completed a $13.8 million, 20,600-square-foot expansion of its International Arrivals facility in June 2025, adding dual-use baggage carousels and extra customs queuing space, according to the City of Austin. That project was Hoodline's earlier coverage of the airport's first major capital project under that program.
The airport also permanently closed its South Terminal on March 31, 2026, consolidating low-cost carriers into the main Barbara Jordan Terminal to clear space for new midfield taxiways, a move the city completed through an $88 million legal settlement to acquire and demolish the structure. Hoodline previously reported on that shift in its story, Austin Axes South Terminal. Austin city leaders finalized 10-year lease agreements with major airlines in January 2026 for a multibillion-dollar expansion that will add 32 new gates, including 26 in a future Concourse B, according to KERA News. That new concourse is expected to open in the early 2030s, per the station's report, and KXAN notes Austin-Bergstrom's second terminal is currently expected to open in 2030, with Delta and Southwest Airlines both set to serve as anchor tenants there while Southwest remains the anchor of the current Barbara Jordan Terminal.
Airlines offered roughly 352,000 two-way seats between Austin and Europe during the summer 2026 season, a 9.1% increase in capacity over the prior year despite a relatively flat number of total transatlantic flights, according to OAG Schedules Analyser data cited by Aviation Week. That growth is unfolding even as construction zones and taxiway reconfigurations tied to the airport's expansion could mean longer taxi times until the new concourse additions open in the early 2030s, the outlet notes. Austin-Bergstrom now serves roughly 20 million passengers a year and officially reached large-hub status in 2022, supporting more than 74,000 direct and indirect jobs across Central Texas, per KXAN.
More International Options on the Way
The Paris announcement follows other recent moves to widen Austin's international map. Cayman Airways began seasonal nonstop flights from Austin to Grand Cayman in May 2026 and plans to expand that service to run from December through August, KXAN reports. Southwest Airlines, meanwhile, is set to begin nonstop service from Austin to San José, Costa Rica on March 13, 2027, a route Hoodline detailed in its report, Southwest's New Costa Rica Nonstop. With the Delta route added, Austin-Bergstrom will offer nonstop service to 14 international destinations, according to KXAN.
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