OREANDA-NEWS. Delta Air Lines (NYSE: DAL) and Virgin Atlantic Airways are celebrating a significant expansion of their trans-Atlantic partnership with the introduction of six new daily services.

The two airlines begin their summer schedule this weekend and will offer up to 39 return trans-Atlantic flights a day between the U.K. and 15 destinations across North America. The joint schedule now includes 10 daily flights between New York and London Heathrow, with eight daily departures from New York-JFK and two departures from Newark. Customers travelling between JFK and London Heathrow will benefit from a memory schedule* of regular evening departures from New York.

"The Delta and Virgin Atlantic partnership continues to offer increased customer choice on the trans-Atlantic routes to London Heathrow – in particular from New York," said Perry Cantarutti, Delta's Senior Vice President, Europe, Middle East and Africa. "The strength of Delta's network in the United States and Virgin Atlantic's strong presence at London Heathrow delivers a very compelling proposition that allows customers in the U.K. to easily connect to more than 200 destinations in the United States."

Virgin Atlantic is launching a second daily service between Los Angeles and Heathrow, complemented by significant investment on the ground with the first-ever Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse in Los Angeles due to open next month. Combined with the Delta service launched in October 2014, the partnership will offer three daily flights from Los Angeles to London and expects to carry close to 400,000 annual passengers on the route.

Also launching this weekend is a seasonal second-daily Virgin Atlantic service between Atlanta and London Heathrow and a second service between San Francisco and London Heathrow that will operate five days a week over the summer.

Joe Thompson, Director of Network and Alliances at Virgin Atlantic, said, "We're very excited to offer this range of new services and frequencies which are a further demonstration of how our joint-venture partnership is benefitting customers. Both Virgin Atlantic and Delta Air Lines put our customers at the heart of what we do. We are passionate about giving them the best flying experience possible, and we look forward to welcoming passengers on board."

The two airlines are maximizing the benefits of their joint-venture partnership and increasing passenger choice by aligning schedules to best meet customer demand. This will see a transfer of operations that begins this weekend with Delta flying one of the Newark-to-London Heathrow services previously operated by Virgin Atlantic. Meanwhile, Virgin Atlantic will take over Delta's Atlanta-to-Manchester service.

Further joint-venture services will be introduced later in the summer. These include:

  • A new daily Delta service between Philadelphia and London Heathrow starting April 26
  • A new daily Delta service between New York-JFK and Manchester starting May 21
  • A new daily Virgin Atlantic service between London Heathrow and Detroit starting June 1
  • Virgin Atlantic is also offering  a series of special seasonal services this year from Orlando to Belfast, Northern Ireland  (June and July), and Las Vegas to Glasgow, Scotland (September and October).

Virgin Atlantic is resuming flights from London Gatwick to the Caribbean island of Tobago on Sunday and will be offering a weekly service during the summer and a twice-weekly service in the winter. 

This summer, Delta flights between London Heathrow and Boston, Los Angeles and New York will operate from Heathrow's Terminal 3 alongside all Virgin Atlantic services. Delta flights between Heathrow and Atlanta, Detroit, Minneapolis-St Paul, Philadelphia and Seattle will operate from Terminal 4. Delta One and Upper Class passengers departing from London Heathrow Terminal 3 will be able to enjoy a seamless transfer from car to lounge via the Virgin Atlantic Upper Class Wing. Business class passengers travelling from Heathrow Terminal 4 will enjoy complimentary access to the SkyTeam lounge.

Since the start of the joint venture, more than five million people have travelled on its services with 10,000 people per month connecting between the two airlines last year. The new schedule offers connecting itineraries to 215 destinations.