Delta flight to view upcoming total solar eclipse at its peak sells out
People rushed to scoop up tickets for a Delta Air Lines flight designed for watching the upcoming total solar eclipse.
Hopeful solar eclipse viewers have already bought up all the seats on the Delta Flight 1228 slated to run April 8, a spokesperson for Delta confirmed to FOX Business on Tuesday, the day after it officially unveiled the special flight.
The flight, which will travel from Austin to Detroit, has been “timed to give those on board the best chance of safely viewing the solar eclipse at its peak” and to “spend as much time as possible directly within the path of totality,” according to a Delta press release.
NASA said the April 8 total solar eclipse will start becoming visible in North America in Mexico at approximately 11 a.m. local time, with the path of the eclipse subsequently expected to move through certain American states in the afternoon.
It will be the “last total eclipse we’ll see over North America until 2044,” according to Delta Air Lines Lead Meteorologist Warren Weston.
Delta will use an A220-300 plane. That aircraft will “offer especially premium viewing due to the aircraft’s extra large windows,” according to the carrier.
The company noted that while its flight plans for DL 1228 on April 8 “have been designed to maximize time within the path of totality, this 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.”
Everything to know about the 2024 solar eclipse
- The solar eclipse will take place Monday, April 8, blocking the sun for over 180 million people in its path.
- The eclipse will expand from Mexico’s Pacific Coast across North America, hitting 15 US states and pulling itself all the way to the coast of Newfoundland, Canada.
- New Yorkers will experience the solar eclipse just after 2 p.m. Monday.
- A huge explosion on the sun, known as a coronal mass ejection, is anticipated, according to experts. This happens when massive particles from the sun are hurled out into space, explains Ryan French of the National Solar Observatory in Boulder, Colorado.
- To avoid serious injury to the eyes, it is necessary to view the event through proper eyewear like eclipse glasses, or a handheld solar viewer, during the partial eclipse phase before and after totality.
- The next total solar eclipse will take place on Aug. 12, 2026, and totality will be visible to those in Greenland, Iceland, Spain, Russia and a small slice of Portugal.
It also has five other flights running the same day that it said will feature “prime eclipse-viewing opportunities.”
NASA said people who want to watch the solar eclipse must do so using specialized eclipse glasses or they could suffer eye injuries. It is “only safe to remove your eclipse glasses during what’s known as totality,” which may only span a minute or two, according to the agency.
The most recent total solar eclipse took place in December 2021. However, only people in Antarctica fell within its path of totality, NASA said.
Parts of the U.S. were last able to see a total solar eclipse in 2017. April’s is expected to “last more than twice as long as the one that occurred in 2017, and the path is nearly twice as wide,” Weston said.