Delta Air Lines (NYSE: DAL) and Virgin
Atlantic Airways Ltd. today outlined details of a new joint venture flight
schedule beginning summer 2014, aligning their services and offering more
flight choices for travellers on both sides of the Atlantic.
The two airlines
are putting the customer at the forefront of their partnership with the new
schedule that starts March 30, 2014, combining their slots at London Heathrow
to offer maximum customer convenience, particularly for business travellers.
Beginning, April 2,
2014, Delta will move its arrival and departure terminal for several important
business markets to join Virgin Atlantic in Heathrow Terminal 3. This includes
its London to New York-JFK, London to Boston, and new London to Seattle
services and means the two airlines will co-locate on all New York and Boston
flights to London Heathrow. The move will allow for convenient connections and a
seamless customer experience for customers flying with Virgin and Delta,
including access to Virgin Atlantic’s award winning Clubhouse for all business
class passengers.
“We are working on a series of improvements to
enhance the travel experience for our customers,” said Craig Kreeger, Virgin
Atlantic’s CEO. “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
co-operation with Virgin Atlantic, will also operate a second daily service
between London Heathrow and Detroit Metropolitan Airport effective June 2,
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 U.S. Midwest.
This additional
flight will complement Delta’s previously announced new West Coast route
between Seattle and London Heathrow, which will launch on March 30, 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 travellers: 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 p.m. 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 travellers,” said Ed Bastian, Delta’s
president. “With our Seattle service, Delta will add its sixth nonstop
destination between London and the United States. Combined the Delta-Virgin
partnership now offers our customers 33 daily nonstop flights across the
Atlantic.”
In September Delta and Virgin Atlantic
welcomed the decision by the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) to
approve the carriers’ joint venture by granting antitrust immunity on routes
between North America and the UK. This
ruling confirmed the clear consumer benefits of the
partnership, enabling the airlines to deepen their cooperation, offering more flight choices for
travellers on both sides of the Atlantic and improving the travel options for
business customers in the New York to London market.
The airlines’ customers benefit from a high-quality
and complementary travel experience with passenger service being an absolute
priority for both airlines. For the business traveller Delta and Virgin Atlantic’s business class
uniquely includes forward-facing fully flat-bed seats, all with direct aisle
access on every flight.
ENDS
Notes
to editors
·
Delta Air Lines first flight
from Seattle to London Heathrow will be on 29th March 2014 and the
start of the second daily service from Detroit to London Heathrow will be June
1st 2014 (timings in above
release are first UK departures.)
·
Timings of the new services
from both airlines are as follows:
Flight number
|
Route
|
Departure Time
|
Arrival Time
|
DL 37
|
Seattle-London Heathrow
|
6.40 p.m.
|
12.05 p.m. (following day)
|
DL 36
|
London Heathrow-Seattle
|
12.20 p.m.
|
2.40 p.m.
|
|
|
|
|
DL 56
|
Detroit – London Heathrow
|
10.25 p.m.
|
11.05 a.m (following day)
|
DL 57
|
London Heathrow - Detroit
|
1.05 p.m.
|
4.05 p.m.
|
|
|
|
|
VS 1
|
London Heathrow - Newark
|
9.45am
|
12.35pm
|
VS 2
|
Newark – London Heathrow
|
7.30pm
|
7.30am (following day)
|
|
|
|
|
VS 11
|
London Heathrow - Boston
|
5.10pm
|
7.40pm
|
VS 12
|
Boston – London Heathrow
|
9.40pm
|
9.10am (following day)
|
About
Delta Air Lines
Delta Air Lines serves more
than 160 million customers each year. Delta
was named by Fortune magazine as the most admired airline
worldwide in its 2013
World’s Most Admired Companies airline industry list, topping the list for the
second time in three years. With an industry-leading global network,
Delta and the Delta
Connection carriers offer service to
314 destinations in 58 countries on six continents. Headquartered in Atlanta,
Delta employs nearly 80,000 employees worldwide and operates a mainline fleet
of more than 700 aircraft. The airline is a founding member of the SkyTeam
global alliance and participates in the industry’s leading trans-Atlantic
joint venture with Air France-KLM
and Alitalia.
Including its worldwide alliance partners, Delta offers customers more than
15,000 daily flights, with hubs in Amsterdam,
Atlanta,
Cincinnati,
Detroit,
Minneapolis-St.
Paul, New
York-LaGuardia, New
York-JFK, Paris-Charles
de Gaulle, Salt
Lake City and Tokyo-Narita.
Delta is investing more than $3 billion in airport facilities and global
products, services and technology to enhance the customer experience in the air
and on the ground. Additional information is available on delta.com,
Twitter @Delta,
Google.com/+Delta
and Facebook.com/delta.
About Virgin Atlantic
Virgin Atlantic was
founded by Sir Richard Branson in 1984. The airline flies over 5.5m passengers
every year to 35 destinations worldwide, including locations across North
America, the Caribbean, Africa, south and east Asia, and Australia. Some
of its most recent additions to its flying network include Cancun, Vancouver
and Mumbai.
Virgin Atlantic has enjoyed huge popularity,
winning top business, consumer and trade awards from around the world and was
recently awarded Best Long Haul
Airline and Best Airline Lounge at The
Daily Telegraph Ultratravel awards. The airline has pioneered a range of innovations
setting new standards of service, which its competitors have subsequently
sought to follow. Despite Virgin Atlantic’s growth the service still remains
customer driven with an emphasis on value for money, quality, fun and
innovation.
Virgin Atlantic
currently has a fleet of aircraft which includes 747-400s, A340-300s, A340-600,
A330-300s and A320s. The airline is expecting
delivery of 16 Boeing 787 Dreamliners from 2014.
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