The results are in!
Last month, Delta Air Lines customers and employees got to vote on which European destination the carrier would launch as its next destination.
The choices Delta offered: Sardinia in Italy, Malta or Ibiza, part of Spain’s Balearic Islands.
After nearly 150,000 votes, two winners emerged.
Delta SkyMiles members crowned Sardinia as the winner, but Malta received the most votes from the Atlanta-based airline’s employees.
The verdict: Delta will launch service to both islands for the summer of 2026, with both routes departing from its hub at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK).
JFK flights to the Italian island of Sardinia will launch May 20, 2026, days before Memorial Day weekend and the big ramp-up of summer travel.
Flights to Malta, the Mediterranean island nation south of Sicily, begin June 7, 2026.
Bookings were expected to go live right away on Tuesday, both for passengers paying for their flights and SkyMiles members hoping to redeem miles.
Reward your inbox with the TPG Daily newsletter
Join over 700,000 readers for breaking news, in-depth guides and exclusive deals from TPG’s experts
Delta lets the voters decide
Delta’s approach for its latest European expansion was a head-turning one for an airline, allowing loyalty members and employees to weigh in on where it sends its planes; airlines usually keep their decisions on routes and destinations close to the vest.
“We can now say that our network is not just built for our most loyal customers, but by them,” Paul Baldoni, Delta’s senior vice president of network planning, said in a statement announcing the news.
That’s not the only reason why Sardinia and Malta are groundbreaking new destinations for travelers.
No airline currently connects the U.S. with Sardinia or Malta (the same would have been true of Ibiza, too).
Both should be alluring new options for travelers at a time when flyers have continued to flock to southern Europe in droves — including to nearby Sicily, Italy, where both Delta and top competitor United Airlines launched nonstop service this past summer.
We should also point out that both Sardinia and Malta have a few hotels you can book with points, including the brand-new W Sardinia — Poltu Quatu, part of the Marriott Bonvoy portfolio.
Aircraft plans
Delta will operate both routes from JFK with its Boeing 767-300ER — specifically, its three-cabin 767 that’s configured with both Delta One and Premium Select seats.
Customers who book the airline’s lie-flat Delta One cabin will have access to the airline’s swanky Delta One Lounge and a dedicated, semiprivate security entrance at JFK’s Terminal 4.
Related reading:
