Delta Air Lines today begins nonstop flights from Seattle to Beijing and beginning Monday from Seattle to Osaka, Japan. The new routes continue Delta’s development of Seattle as its primary West Coast gateway to Asia.

“Delta’s development of Seattle as a gateway to Asia continues to create opportunities for economic development and tourism across the Pacific Northwest,” said Steve Sear, Delta’s vice president – Global Sales. “Customers from across the United States and Asia enjoy convenient connections to and from more than 70 nonstop destinations at Seattle through Delta and our codeshare partner Alaska Airlines’ hub.”

In addition to Beijing and Osaka, Delta and its joint venture partner Air France KLM offer daily nonstop trans-oceanic service from Seattle to its hubs at Tokyo-Narita, Amsterdam and Paris-Charles de Gaulle, where customers can make onward connections to dozens of destinations throughout Asia, Europe, Africa and the Middle East.  Domestically, Delta offers daily flights from Seattle to its seven U.S. hubs and Honolulu.

“This is great economic news for Washington state,” Gov. Chris Gregoire said. “This flight will carry business leaders in both directions, creating new relationships that will open new doors on both sides of the Pacific.”

The new and expanded service from Seattle is part of Delta’s summer 2010 schedule, the first fully consolidated schedule published following Delta’s merger with Northwest. The merger combined Delta’s broad network to Europe, Middle East, Africa and Latin America with Northwest’s Asian network providing single airline access to six continents. A complete list of Delta’s summer 2010 seasonal service is available at http://news.delta.com/index.php?DB=mr4enh_delta&s=11.

Both new Seattle routes, served by Boeing 216-seat 767-300ER aircraft, will offer customers the option to experience Delta’s award-winning BusinessElite service, including innovative food offerings from celebrity chef Michelle Bernstein and original wine selections chosen by Delta’s Master Sommelier Andrea Robinson. BusinessElite also features on-demand personal in-seat entertainment boasting more than 20 first-run and popular classic movies, a variety of TV programs, thousands of music titles and a suite of video games.

As previously announced, Delta will invest $1 billion, or about $300 million per year, through mid-2013 to improve the customer experience in the air and on the ground. The product investment includes installing full flat-bed seats in BusinessElite on 90 trans-oceanic aircraft, including 14 Boeing 767-400ERs, 52 Boeing 767-300ERs, 16 Boeing 747-400s and eight Boeing 777-200ERs. Upon completion, each of these fleets will have full flat-bed seats on all aircraft. Delta also will add in-seat audio and video on demand throughout Economy Class on 16 Boeing 747-400 and 52 Boeing 767-300ER aircraft. With these additions, Delta will offer personal, in-seat entertainment for both BusinessElite and Economy class customers on all wide-body aircraft. Additional information about these product investments is available at http://news.delta.com/index.php?s=43&item=870.