This spring, all eyes will gaze upward as the moon passes between the sun and earth, a celestial alignment best known as a total solar eclipse. When the skies momentarily darken on April 8, 2024, it will be the last time earthlings will be able to view the rare night sky phenomenon from the US mainland for the next 20 years.
As astro tourism becomes one of hottest travel trends of the year, many eclipse chasers—also called “umbraphiles”—have made travel plans in order to experience as much of the totality (the fleeting period of time when the moon completely blocks the face of the sun) as possible.
But now one airline has come up with a way to top them all. On Monday, Delta announced a special flight from Austin to Detroit on eclipse day, designed specifically to maximize the length of the celestial sensation by literally chasing the path of totality as it comes up from Mexico through Texas and heads across the center of the country, sweeping through Detroit and upstate New York before passing into Canada. Passengers won’t have to worry about clambering for the window seats, either—the Airbus A220-300 has extra large windows for prime viewing.
Delta flight 1218 will leave Austin at 12:15 p.m local time on April 8, where the partial eclipse is expected to last from 12:17 to 2:58 p.m, with totality occurring at 1:36 p.m., according to the University of Texas at Austin’s astronomy department.
The aircraft will then follow the trail for as long as possible before landing in Detroit at 4:20 p.m. local time. There, the eclipse will start around 1:58 p.m. and hit totality at 3:14 p.m, with partial coverage lasting through 4:27 p.m., per the Detroit Free Press.
Catch the last total solar eclipse to hit the US for two decades. We’ve got planning tips, and the best places to watch, below.
The special departure was created as part of a “significant collaboration” with various Delta teams to map out the best experience for those on board, the carrier’s Managing Director of Domestic Network Planning Eric Beck said in a statement, which also alludes to curated experiences at the gate and in the air.
With only 130 seats on the plane, by the time we checked for a seat this morning, it was already well into four digit prices. At the time of publishing, there was one seat left in the main cabin left for $1,129.
While flight 1218 will be the only one tracing the exact pathway, the Atlanta-based airline says five more of its flights on April 8 will also have “prime eclipse-viewing opportunity.” Those include flight 5699 from Detroit to New York’s Westchester leaving at 2:59 p.m local time on a ERJ-175, flight 924 from Los Angeles to Dallas Fort Worth departing at 8:40 a.m. on an A320, flight 2869 from Los Angeles to San Antonio taking off at 9 a.m. on an A319, flight 1001 from Salt Lake CIty to San Antonio leaving at 10:08 a.m. on a A220-300, and flight 1683 from Salt Lake City to Austin departing at 9:55 a.m on a A320.
That said, the carrier does warn that while much planning has been done to ensure the in-air eclipse viewing truly maximizes the path of totality, the experience “is subject to change due to factors outside of Delta’s control such as weather and air traffic control that could impact timing and aircraft.”
The last total solar eclipse visible in the US wasn’t all that long ago, happening on August 21, 2017. But Delta’s lead meteorologist Warren Weston says this year’s event is particularly worth planning around since it’s more significant in two major ways: “This eclipse will last more than twice as long…and the path is nearly twice as wide.”
