Delta and Virgin Atlantic Confirm Transatlantic Schedule

Delta Air Lines and Virgin Atlantic Airways have outlined details of a new joint venture flight schedule beginning summer 2014, aligning their services and offering more flight choices for travelers on both sides of the Atlantic. The two airlines are combining their slots at London Heathrow to offer maximum customer convenience, particularly for business travellers, from the launch of the 2014 summer schedule on March 30, 2014.

A key part of the partnership will, from April 2, 2014, see Delta move its arrival and departure terminal for several important business markets to join Virgin Atlantic in Heathrow Terminal 3. This includes its links from London’s largest airport to New York John F Kennedy International, Boston, and its new Seattle service and means the two airlines will co-locate on all its New York and Boston flights to London Heathrow.

The move will certainly allow for more convenient connection options for travellers and a seamless customer experience across both operators, including access to Virgin Atlantic's award winning Clubhouse lounge for all Delta’s business class passengers.

"We are working on a series of improvements to enhance the travel experience for our customers," said Craig Kreeger, chief executive officer, Virgin Atlantic. "We already co-locate together at New York's JFK airport and moving some of Delta's key business flights to join Virgin Atlantic at Heathrow's Terminal 3 will enhance convenience, and reduce connection times. This demonstrates how our new partnership is going to be making a real difference for customers."

Delta, in cooperation with Virgin Atlantic, will also operate a second daily service between London Heathrow and Detroit Metropolitan Airport effective June 1, 2014. The service will be particularly appealing to corporate customers needing an early morning arrival into London while offering more schedule choice for customers between London and the US Midwest. This additional flight will complement Delta's previously announced new West Coast route between Seattle and London Heathrow, which will launch on March 29, 2014.

Virgin Atlantic is also making significant schedule changes. It is moving its ‘VS1’ Heathrow to Newark service from a late afternoon departure to a morning departure. This flight will be particularly attractive to business travelers: it will allow 'same-day meetings' to be held in the New Jersey area, while an earlier departure on the return flight means passengers can be in central London for the start of the working day.

This service is part of nine daily flights between London Heathrow and the New York area by the joint venture partners. The new schedule will include departures every 30 minutes during the early evening peak and then hourly until 10:30 pm from New York-JFK to London Heathrow and a spread of seven daily flights from London Heathrow to New York-JFK, including two late afternoon and early evening departures. It also includes two conveniently timed departures to and from Newark.

Virgin Atlantic has also retimed its Heathrow to Boston service to depart two hours later in the afternoon. This offers more flexibility for the two airlines' customers with Delta's Heathrow to Boston service departing in the morning. Virgin Atlantic's evening departure from Boston will also move two hours later, giving greater schedule choice to travellers.

"A key reason for our joint venture was to offer customers more choice and convenient schedules, especially for our business travelers," said Ed Bastian, president, Delta Air Lines. "With our Seattle service, Delta will add its sixth non-stop destination between London and the United States. Combined the Delta-Virgin partnership now offers our customers 33 daily non-stop flights across the Atlantic."

In September, Delta and Virgin Atlantic welcomed the decision by the US Department of Transportation (DOT) to approve the carriers' joint venture by granting antitrust immunity on routes between North America and the UK. This ruling has enabled the airlines to deepen their cooperation.

In the table below we look in more detail at transatlantic operations from London Heathrow to the US and how frequency and capacity will change in May 2014, compared to the same month this year. Our analysis shows that frequencies will increase 1.6 per cent in May 2014 and capacity will rise 0.1 per cent versus last year.

The latest schedule data from OAG Analyser shows that Virgin Atlantic and Delta are both reporting the largest capacity growth during this period with 9.2 per cent and 5.4 per cent more seats: Kuwait Airways also has a notable 7.7 per cent growth thanks to the addition of one more flight rotation in May 2014 versus the same last year due to monthly day variations.

Interestingly, although British Airways will boost flight frequency in May 2014 versus May 2013 by 3.2 per cent and inaugurate a new Link to Austin with its Boeing 787 Dreamliners, overall capacity will decline 2.4 per cent in the month when compared to last year.

Transatlantic Services From London Heathrow To US in May 2014 Versus May 2013 (non-stop departures)