Originally Posted by GagaPilot

Most of the reasoning behind DL's lack of Asia presence occurred before Covid. DL used to have quite an impressive hub at NRT advertised as "Asia's Front Door." One could fly direct to NRT from any DL hub in the US, and then connect onward (on DL metal 767s, 747s, 777s, and A333s) to a large number of intra-Asia destinations. This was a hub leftover from the NW days that enjoyed "Fifth-Freedom" rights to operate intra-Asia routes. It was a great hub, and I have fond memories of connecting in it multiple times.

My memory is that it really started to be dismantled from 2016-2019 with the loss of key routes like BKK, HKG, TPE until finally SIN. I was actually in SIN whenever DL service was discontinued and I remember they rebooked me on MU for my return flight.

While I can't remember the timing of when Bastian took over from Anderson as CEO, but ever since then, DL has really started to depend on JV's with other carriers. Personally I'm not a fan of Codeshare flights as they are never as "seamless" as the airline advertises and often result in ticketing/reservation confusion. But, I've accepted that it's the only way for now to get to Asia via SkyTeam: connect in ICN onward to KE.

Add in Covid to the mix and I don't see DL increasing Asia routes anytime soon. The best we might see is a few additional ICN flights to add capacity over to the KE network, or better connect to their schedules within Asia. Business travel has been very slow to resume in Asia, with most demand being families wishing to reconnect. Lastly, Asia just isn't as popular of a vacation destination for Americans. It's very far away and the average American doesn't have the time to travel there on vacation vs a long weekend over to Europe. Personally I love Asia and I'm currently in the process of planning a trip back to BKK in early 2024. As it stands today, there will be a connection in ICN on KE to get there.