Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL) today announced an expansion of its service to Italy. Delta will introduce Boston’s only nonstop service to Rome on May 1, 2003, operating during the summer season through September. Also on May 1, Delta will expand its service to year-round flights between Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport and Rome’s Leonardo Da Vinci International Airport at Fiumicino. Both flights will feature the Boeing 767-300ER aircraft, and will offer Delta’s award-winning BusinessElite service.

“Currently, Boston is the largest East Coast market without nonstop Rome service, and we are introducing the new summer seasonal flights in response to seasonal demand we expect next summer,” said Subodh Karnik, Delta’s senior vice president - Network and Revenue Management. “We introduced summer seasonal service between Cincinnati and Rome this year and, building on the success of that flight, as well as our other international service at Cincinnati, we have made the decision to extend the Rome service to year-round flights next spring.”

Both the Boston and Cincinnati flights provide Delta customers significant new access to the European hub of SkyTeam partner Alitalia at Rome, and Alitalia will offer code-share service on the new flights. From Rome, Delta offers customers codeshare service on 91 Alitalia flights to 16 destinations in Italy and five destinations in Europe. This new service also will directly link to Delta’s extensive domestic network via Delta, Delta Shuttle, Delta Express and Delta Connection to Europe.

“This new international service is another tangible example of the positive economic and consumer benefits attributable to ‘open skies’ and strong alliance partnerships such as SkyTeam,” Karnik said.

Delta, the Delta Connection carriers and Delta’s codeshare partners also offer nonstop service between Boston and Paris; Milan; Montego Bay, Jamaica; Bermuda; and Halifax and Montreal, Canada. From Cincinnati, Delta, the Delta Connection carriers and Delta’s codeshare partners offer nonstop service to Frankfurt, London, Paris, Montreal, Toronto, Cancun and Nassau.

Delta Air Lines, the world’s second largest carrier in terms of passengers carried and the U.S. airline with the most transatlantic destinations, offers 5,781 flights each day to 428 destinations in 77 countries on Delta, Delta Express, Delta Shuttle, Delta Connection and Delta’s worldwide partners. Delta is a founding member of SkyTeam, a global airline alliance that provides customers with extensive worldwide destinations, flights and services. For more information, please go to delta.com.

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