Watch Delta’s first Sicily-to-NYC flight celebrated with iconic water salute

Delta Air Lines finally launched a new daily nonstop flight to NYC from Catania, Sicily in Italy.

As per tradition, the first flight was celebrated with the iconic water salute, which made the Boeing 767-300 look even more spectacular.

Probably because the sun was shining but the rain had just stopped when they did the water salute, which means a nice rainbow had just appeared.

Also, as a side note, this new route actually set some sort of record.

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The first flight was christened with the traditional water salute, and the plane looked absolutely spectacular, as you can see from the video (above) shared by Etnazone on Facebook.

Direct Air Lines flights to the U.S. from Italy have been available since the dawn of time but never with rhyme or reason.

With perhaps the only exception of Rome, other routes regularly disappear and reappear, and airlines generally prioritize other major cities in the mainland.

In a way, Delta sort of set a record here by becoming a the first U.S. airline to offer nonstop flight to NYC from Catania in Sicily, a long-unserved market.

It also sets a precedent, in that it’s either going to work (commercially) or it won’t.

If it does, we can expect other airlines to follow suit.

After all, Delta, American and United are like Apple and Samsung – they pretend competition doesn’t exist but, in reality, they’re always copying each other, or at the very least they’re paying close attention to what the other company is doing.

The airplane they chose for this route is also interesting.

Delta will be using a Boeing 767-300, loosely related to the cargo jet that Drake turned into a private jet.

Designed to complement the (much) larger 747, the 767 predates the 787 Dreamliner, yet some airlines still prefer it due the 787’s battery and engine issues that didn’t cause any major accidents but definitely caused some headaches.