OREANDA-NEWS.    Delta Air Lines (NYSE: DAL) and Virgin Atlantic Airways will transfer operations for nonstop flights connecting London-Heathrow to Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport and Los Angeles International Airport this winter, offering more choices for the airlines' customers on key routes across the Atlantic.

Effective Oct. 26, 2014, Delta will begin operating one of two daily Heathrow-Los Angeles flights currently operated by Virgin Atlantic. This new Delta service will mark the airline's first nonstop flight between Los Angeles and London Heathrow and is Delta's seventh nonstop destination between London and the United States. Virgin Atlantic will begin operating one of Delta's three daily flights between Heathrow and Atlanta. The new services will expand the award-winning service offered by both carriers to customers as well as provide greater choice for travel between the U.K. and North America. The two airlines will codeshare on each other's operated services, allowing Delta and Virgin customers seamless access to the expanded network.

"It's great to see how our partnership with Delta is already proving fruitful to our customers," said Craig Kreeger, Virgin Atlantic CEO. "In less than a year we will have co-located key business routes, delivered schedule changes to benefit our customers and provided enhanced experiences to our frequent fliers, who gain from reciprocal lounge access and the ability to earn and burn across both carriers. This is just the beginning of demonstrating how a true joint venture between airlines should be operated to benefit customers."

This announcement also shows how the partnership, which launched on Jan. 1, 2014, is increasing the network of each carrier. Virgin Atlantic will have access to Delta's Atlanta hub, the busiest airport in the world, for the first time, providing expansive and unprecedented access for Virgin Atlantic customers to connect to points throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean.  The airline will now be able to offer more than 100 additional international and domestic connections to its customers. This brings the total number of connections available through the partnership to more than 200.

"From the outset we said that our partnership with Virgin Atlantic was about improving services while offering more destinations and schedule choice," said Delta President Ed Bastian. "Expanding access to London's Heathrow Airport has long been at the top of Delta's list of priorities, while Virgin Atlantic has long wanted greater access to North America. Today's announcement shows how we're delivering this shared commitment to increase connectivity on the trans-Atlantic."