Free NY Times app for Delta Air Lines travellers

Published: 2026-04-13 02:18:10 ET DAL

Published on 04/13/2026 at 02:18 am EDT

More than one hundred million Delta Air Lines passengers will get free access to the news and archives of The New York Times during and shortly after their flights. For both parties, it is a way to hook in and retain an audience.

Members of Delta Air Lines’ SkyMiles loyalty programme get access to the publisher’s full digital offering in the 24 hours around their flight. In addition to news, this includes things like games, podcasts and cooking content.

The Sync Wi‑Fi service is offered on the 1,200 aircraft that have Wi‑Fi on board. At present, T‑Mobile provides the wireless internet, but Delta has just signed a contract to purchase broadband from satellite provider Amazon Leo. That will start in 2028.

Delta carries around 200 million passengers a year, a little over half of whom have at some point signed up to the loyalty programme. It is estimated that in reality some 25 million travellers are actively using it.

Delta Air Lines offers SkyMiles members various premium content deals. Alongside NY Times content, these include YouTube Premium, Paramount+ and Crunchyroll. These bundles are meant to make travelling with Delta more attractive, by offering premium entertainment. Wi‑Fi is free for members of the loyalty programme.

Amazon Leo easily delivers speeds of hundreds of megabits per second, considerably less than what KLM will be offering on its European flights.