Delta Air Lines just announced its vision for the future of flying – here are my 3 favorite features coming to their planes and app
- Delta Air Lines 2025 CES keynote was a riveting spectacle
- The airline announced partnerships with YouTube, Airbus and Uber
- A new generative AI assistant called ‘Concierge’ could make air travel easier
There have been a lot of keynotes at CES 2025 this week, but by far the most impressive and simply the coolest was the one I attended last night, January 7 at the Sphere. Delta Air Lines delivered a keynote that brought a lot of dazzle and dazzle, but also made excellent use of space – I mean, there’s nothing like a tech demo, even a pre-recorded one, on a big screen.
Beyond that, though, it feels like Delta Air Lines is laying new foundations and between a new generative AI assistant ‘Concierge’ and confirmed vertical take-off electric aircraft arriving with many partnerships in the coming years, there was certainly a lot of ground to cover.
CEO Ed Bastian led the keynote quite well, talking about the airline’s history, its core values and the basis for future innovation, all accompanied by powerful sound, lots of wind thanks to a long line of fans and the big screen.
So let’s take a look at the three most impressive things Delta Air Lines announced and teased during the 2025 Consumer Electronics Show keynote.
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1. ‘Concierge’ can make traveling a lot easier and more personal
Like every other company at CES, Delta is also joining the AI bandwagon. This one can be useful though, and there will be a level playing field no matter where you sit on the plane – Delta One and standard economy are the same here.
Delta’s ‘Concierge’ is a personal assistant, so he knows your itinerary, where you live and previous flights. From there, it can suggest things like scheduling an Uber to get you through the airport on time and escort you through the terminal, potentially dropping you off closer to the best security lane for expedited processing if you have TSA Precheck or Clear. But conversely, if you check a bag, he can adjust your route for that.
Since it can communicate with other apps, the LLM is multi-modal, and potential longer-term partnerships could expand this. In a teaser video, a customer could use the seatback screen to confirm a dining reservation and view a new suggested route that would get them from the airport to their hotel faster.
It’s really about making more data accessible in one place and enhancing the overall Delta experience – something the employees are very passionate about, just ask me or my colleague Lance as we sat next to the cheerful group – and ultimately making travel a little more convenient overall.
Now Concierge, similar to Apple Intelligence, will be rolled out in phases, so we can expect the first features to appear sometime in 2025.
2. YouTube will join 4K screens and better Wi-Fi in flight
Delta Air Lines’ seat experience is called ‘Delta Sync’ and will have a number of new features. But the one that got a shoutout – and a debut on the Sphere stage – was a collaboration with YouTube.
If you’re enrolled in Skymiles – Delta’s free membership program – you’ll unlock ad-free YouTube content, ranging from videos to music and podcasts, to your seat’s Delta Sync screen.
Judging from teaser photos, it looks like YouTube videos may appear in line with the existing content library, while there will be a widget for YouTube Music. Additionally, Skymiles members are eligible for a free trial of YouTube Premium. This way you can experience ad-free content on the ground or at an altitude of 10,000 meters.
Not on stage, but written in a subsequent press release, is a promised improvement to Wi-Fi. Delta already offers free WiFi for Skymiles members, but thanks to an already announced switch to provider Hughes for some aircraft, you can expect more stable connections in the future. This comes shortly after United Airlines announced it will accelerate the planned rollout of Starlink across its entire fleet.
Perhaps even more important, though, is the arrival of 4K HDR QLED screens to some seatbacks. If you like a window seat like me, this can give you a bright, rich view even when the sun shines in. There will also be an exclusive new show focused on wellbeing while traveling, hosted by Tom Brady, called ‘Well Traveled’. .”
3. A look at the future of aviation
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♬ original sound – Ny Breaking
Probably my favorite moment was how Delta used the Sphere’s screen – for example, as you can see on TikTok, we witnessed and felt the air of an Airbus A350 taxiing towards us on a runway and then parking its nose almost into the people touching. extreme left side of the sphere. There was a rumbling in the seats, jet engines roaring loudly and wind – yes, wind blowing towards us.
And while that’s a look at our current plane today, possibly even the plane on which some CES attendees arrived, we did get a sneak peek. Delta Air Lines is working with Airbus on innovation labs to envision future aircraft, including those that can eventually run on 100% sustainable fuel.
At the moment, some planes can fly with a combination of 50% of these, but even more interesting is that the two companies are working on planes with folding wings. So, like a bird in the sky, a future Delta plane could change the shape or direction of its wings for better aerodynamics.
Even more advanced, and likely arriving sooner, is Joby’s electric plane, which can take off or land vertically. This means it can go up into the air or come back down, more like a helicopter than requiring a long asphalt or concrete runway.
CEO Ed Bastian said on stage that these would arrive in the coming years, first in Los Angeles and New York City – we even saw how the concierge could call a Joby to ensure you got to the airport on time. It was amazing to see the Sphere’s 160,000 square foot screen transform into that futuristic airplane cockpit, as well as seeing its images fly over some beautiful backdrops.
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As a whole, Delta Air Lines used the Consumer Electronics Show 2025 keynote to impress both visually and audibly with a set from Lenny Kravitz after a grand finale of digital fireworks that, believe me, were just as cool as the real fireworks . thing – but also aim to improve the customer experience by using new technology to hopefully create meaningful experiences, some of which will arrive in the coming months of 2025.
I really want to try out the generative AI ‘Concierge’ experience as it will probably get better over time, but I’ll do whatever I can to speed it up and make air travel a little easier.
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♬ original sound – Ny Breaking