In recent years, Delta Air Lines' presence has develop into a staple at CES, with the airline frequently hosting splashy keynotes. This 12 months, the corporate rented the Sphere to announce its latest updates. These include (are you able to guess?) an AI-powered assistant within the app, in addition to an updated in-flight entertainment system with 4K HDR displays and Bluetooth connectivity. Members of Delta's SkyMiles frequent flyer program may even soon receive free access to YouTube Premium and YouTube Music on board the corporate's aircraft. Delta announced these updates at CES 2025.
The recent AI assistant, which Delta calls Delta Concierge, will launch later this 12 months. Users can interact with it via voice or text. In the age of enormous language models, that is after all not exactly groundbreaking. The idea is to supply proactive advice and guidance to air travelers, starting with notifications about upcoming passport expirations and visa requirements. In the long run, the service may even offer destination-specific notifications, for instance concerning the local weather.
The concierge may even provide directions to bag drop locations, Delta Sky Clubs, and departure gates.
It all feels useful, nevertheless it's also a bit disappointing, and plenty of of those recent features feel more like table games than massive innovations. In fact, I'm pretty sure there's no need for AI to envision whether a flyer's passport is about to run out or to inform them where their connecting gate is.
The recent seatback experience, which Delta describes as “the primary cloud-based inflight entertainment system,” will launch in 2026. It guarantees a big upgrade to existing systems with 4K HDR QLED displays, Bluetooth connectivity and a 96 terabyte onboard storage system for storing movies, TV shows, music and more.
Again, it feels a bit like Delta is catching up. United's ongoing fleet renewal, for instance, already offers 4K displays and Bluetooth connectivity. This system will not be connected to the cloud, but I'm unsure that matters to fliers, especially if all the United fleet becomes Starlink-enabled. So far, this doesn’t include free YouTube Premium and Music that Delta desires to offer.
And because a CES keynote wouldn't be a CES keynote without announcing a couple of ideas that may probably never come to market, Delta also announced Tuesday that it plans to work with Airbus on the following phase of flight testing Fello'fly project. The idea is to let aircraft fly in formation – just like flocks of geese – to avoid wasting energy. This project has been running for several years. It's a nifty concept, but it is going to require so many regulatory changes to make it a reality that it's unlikely to return to make use of any time soon.
