Sticking to its summer expansion plans in Europe, Delta Air Lines is once again flying to Barcelona from Atlanta this season. The Spanish city is one of many that feature in the airline's robust network across the Atlantic this summer. Delta is bouncing back strongly amid rising passenger demand, restarting many previously suspended routes and even hiring more employees to support growing operations.

Hello, Barcelona!

Delta Air Lines has started connecting Atlanta with Barcelona again from April 2. The airline deployed an Airbus A330-200 aircraft for the eight-hour flight between the two cities and will fly this route three times a week initially. From April 14, the service will increase to a once-daily flight.

The flight will operate on the following schedule:

About two weeks ago, Delta Air Lines revealed its expansion plans to Europe this summer, detailing several flights it plans to operate to the continent. The carrier will operate more than 510 weekly flights to Europe, offering its Delta Premium Select cabin on almost all of these flights.

More love to Spain

Barcelona isn't the only city to see direct Delta flights this season. From April 1, Delta has also started flying to Madrid from Atlanta. This route is served by the airline's Boeing 767-400ER aircraft, with the Atlanta-Madrid flight departing at 6:10 pm and arriving at 8:45 am. The return flight has a scheduled departure time of 11:15 am, arriving in Atlanta at 2:55 pm.

Both Barcelona and Madrid are already connected by non-stop Delta flights with New York JFK with daily frequencies.

Bullish expansion

Delta is going all out in re-establishing its previous network now that travel demand is steadily increasing. In an attempt to make the most out of the surge in travel, the airline has brought back several previously suspended routes and is even increasing the workforce to support growing operations.

Last week, it was announced that Delta would start flying between Detroit and Frankfurt from April 12 after a gap of 25 months. Offering almost 900 seats in a week on each leg, the frequency of the flights will increase to once daily from May 2.

The airline is also in a tussle with United Airlines over bagging the last remaining frequencies on the US - South Africa country pair. Seventeen of the 21 available weekly return frequencies are already allocated, and both airlines want to grab what's left to operate flights to Cape Town. While United already flies daily between New York (EWR) and Johannesburg (JNB) and thrice-weekly from Newark to Cape Town, Delta flies daily between Atlanta (ATL) and Johannesburg.

Anticipating a busy year ahead, Delta also announced on March 24 that it is seeking to hire additional flight attendants with the aim of having a total of 4,500 new flight attendants on the front line by the end of 2022.