Delta Air Lines said Tuesday that it will increase its Shanghai-Los Angeles service from three times to five-times weekly starting October 7, 2026, in the US carrier's latest move to expand connectivity between the world's top two economies.

With this increase, Delta will operate 19 flights between the Chinese mainland and the US each week, including the airline's existing daily routes connecting Shanghai-Pudong with Seattle and Detroit, according to the information that the company shared with the Global Times.

All Delta services from Shanghai to the US hubs will be operated on the airline's Airbus A350-900, the company said.

Earlier this month, Delta resumed its Hong Kong-Los Angeles service. The new nonstop route offers more than 30 convenient one-stop connections from Los Angeles.

Air traffic between China and the US has recovered to less than 30 percent of pre-pandemic levels.

Compared with the same period in 2019, current flight volumes only recovered to approximately 27.3 percent, indicating that there remains considerable room for recovery on China-US air routes, according to data from information provider VariFlight sent to the Global Times on Tuesday.

Data from May 16 to June 15 showed the actual number of passenger flights operated between Chinese mainland and the US stood at 859, representing a month-over-month increase of 4.1 percent and a year-over-year increase of 2.3 percent.

The month-over-month growth rate, which outpaced the year-over-year rate, suggests that recent flight operations have improved more significantly compared with the previous period, though the increase remains moderate relative to the same period last year, VariFlight said.

United Airlines ranked first with 213 flights operated, followed by Delta and Air China. The top three carriers together operated 487 flights, accounting for 56.7 percent of the total.

Overall, Chinese carriers operated a combined total of 436 flights, while US carriers operated 423 flights, indicating that the operational scale of carriers on both sides remains largely balanced, VariFlight said.