Delta Air Lines passengers will soon begin noticing a brand-new look when they board their flights.
The Atlanta-based carrier announced Tuesday that it has started an ambitious retrofit of its entire fleet that will include new seat upholstery, seat cushioning, mood lighting, and an all-around updated motif with a new design language throughout its airplane cabins.
“This refreshed cabin interior infuses utility with beauty to create an atmosphere that feels fresh, elevated, and timeless while reflecting our customers’ evolving tastes and expectations,” Delta’s Vice President of Customer Experience Design Mauricio Parise said in a statement.
The standout feature of the new design is the modernized seats. Switching from the airline’s current light-blue seats to mostly navy blue with red accents, the airline is the latest to modernize its aircraft seating, following in the footsteps of similar recent seat overhauls at Southwest Airlines and British Airways.
The color of the seats isn’t the only change that is coming. Business-class passengers in the Delta One cabin will get entirely new memory-foam padding with covers made from a breathable wool and nylon blend that Delta says will better regulate temperature. Premium Select (Delta’s version of Premium Economy) and first-class seats (on domestic flights) will get a new seat cover made with engineered leather and memory-foam cushions. Main cabin and Comfort+ seats on Delta’s wide-body planes will also get the memory-foam cushion, while all other seats fleetwide will get the new engineered leather and updated styling with the fresh color scheme and accents.
Importantly, Delta isn’t saying that it’s putting new seats in its planes; rather, it’s updating the look and feel to create a contemporary and consistent passenger experience between aircraft.
Beyond the seats themselves, the airline is putting new touches on the bulkheads and dividers between classes to match the seats, giving them a “celestial sky” pattern. The lavatories, too, are getting a slight glow-up, with new colors and the same stellar pattern as the dividers.
Another enhancement will be the ability to adjust the cabin lighting for different moods. During boarding, for example, Delta says it will use warm and open lighting, while during meal times it will tone down the atmosphere to make passengers feel as if they’re at a “candlelit dinner.” The cabin lights will remove blue tones and mimic the sunset for sleep, then slowly brighten the lights to mimic daylight when it’s time to wake up.
Delta says it has already begun installing the new interiors. The first plane sporting the new look will start flying this year: a narrow-body Boeing 757 that will fly domestic and short-haul international routes.
The next jet to get the same treatment will be a wide-body Airbus A350—the flagship of the airline’s long-haul international operations—which will start flying in early 2025 with fresh interior digs. Apart from those two planes, Delta did not give a firm timeline on when the rest of its fleet will get the upgrades.
“Additional aircraft will receive the new cabin design as Delta’s schedule and operation allows over the next few years,” the airline said in a statement. “Delta is committed to having its entire fleet look uniform and updated with this new design.”
Delta told The Points Guy that all new aircraft being delivered in late 2025 and onward will have the new interiors installed already.
Delta has been hard at work upgrading its premium offerings in recent years to court customers willing to pay top dollar for an upgraded flying experience—and this is arguably another step in that direction. The airline has recently opened splashy Delta One lounges for its international business-class passengers at JFK airport in New York, and just this month at LAX airport in Los Angeles. It has also debuted new Missoni-branded amenity kits and has partnered with the Italian fashion house on design elements in the JFK Delta One lounge space.
