Delta Massively Expanding Nashville Sky Club in 2020
Quick summary
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Just over three years after its previous expansion of the Sky Club lounge in Nashville Delta has announced another expansion of the Sky Club at BNA.
Opening in early 2016, the previous expansion extended the BNA Sky Club's main floor to over 1,300 square feet with seating for 82. However, even after that expansion, the lounge remains relatively small and is frequently crowded during busy times of day. Delta now wants to fix that problem. A sign in the lounge entrance now heralds another expansion coming in 2020, adding 10,000 square feet to the lounge. That's an almost eightfold expansion.
Assuming that the final design does indeed add 10,000 square feet to the Nashville Sky Club, it will become one of the largest non-hub lounges in the entire Sky Club network, eclipsing the new 7,500 sqft Sky Club in Phoenix (PHX), the new 9,000 sqft Sky Club in Austin (AUS), and the recently-expanded 9,000 sqft Sky Club at Washington-Reagan (DCA). Of course, it will still be significantly smaller than some of the huge hub locations, such as the 21,000 sqft Seattle (SEA) Sky Club or the almost 25,000 sqft Sky Club in Atlanta (ATL) concourse B at Delta's home airport.
That additional square footage won't all be seating areas. According to the sign, visitors to the expanded BNA Sky Club can expect a "new food and beverage experience" to be part of the addition. Perhaps even more welcomed by some will be the renovated restrooms, which should help cut down on the perpetual lines at the current two single-stall restrooms.
The scope of this expansion also suggests that Delta — or one of its joint-venture partners, such as Air France or KLM — may be considering adding trans-Atlantic service from BNA sooner rather than later. Should this occur, one of Delta's partner hubs in Paris (CDG) or Amsterdam (AMS) would seem to be the most likely destination. Over in the rival Oneworld alliance, British Airways seems to be having success with its recently-launched service between Nashville and London-Heathrow (LHR.) Within a year of its launch, the route has already increased to daily frequency and the aircraft has been swtiched from a Boeing 787-8 to a bigger 787-9.
This expansion of the Sky Club also comes as BNA itself is renovating and expanding. A new terminal garage opened recently, the new Concourse D expected to open in 2020, and a renovated ticketing lobby and new international arrivals facility are scheduled to open in 2023.
While Delta has recently tightened rules on accessing its Sky Club lounges, there will still remain several ways to access this expanded lounge. SkyTeam Elite Plus (Delta Gold Medallion and up) or premium-cabin passengers who are connecting to or from same-day SkyTeam international long-haul flights will have access. Additionally, Delta Sky Club members and cardholders of the Platinum Card® from American Express or the Delta Reserve® Credit Card from American Express may access Delta Sky Clubs when traveling on any same-day Delta flight.
With the only other lounge option at BNA being American Airlines' Admirals Club, this expanded Sky Club will be a particularly attractive option to BNA passengers who can access it.