Delta Virgin for partnership
DELTA Air Lines, America’s revered airline, is planning to entrench its presence in one of the world’s busiest airport, Heathrow.
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Consequently, the airline is seeking a strategic partnership with Virgin Atlantic, which is expected to be consummated later this year.
Heathrow is the world’s top business destination; out of the top 10 transatlantic corporate markets, eight are to London Heathrow.
Delta and Virgin expect to jointly offer 21 daily flights from London Heathrow to the United States of America (USA) by the end of 2013.
According to the President of Delta, Mr Ed Bastian, “London Heathrow is the most important access point for corporate travellers and that was the driving force behind our decision to invest in Virgin Atlantic.”
He noted that “given the constraints on growth at Heathrow, our partnership with Virgin will enable us to expand our presence at this airport and level the field a little with our competitors, while offering customers even more in terms of choice and benefits.”
With effect from March 31, this year, Delta is expected to launch a third daily service between Heathrow and Atlanta for a total of nine daily nonstop flights to five US cities: New York-JFK, Atlanta, Detroit, Minneapolis-St Paul and Boston.
Customers will benefit from almost 30,000 weekly seats offered on Delta flights between Heathrow and the United States this summer.
In addition, Delta has been making a number of significant investments in products and services for customers flying from Heathrow, including offering fully flat-bed seats on all services between Heathrow and the US – more than 4,700 available each week to five US cities as well as introducing Wi-Fi on transatlantic services.
It is also opening a new US$1.4 billion Terminal 4 at New York’s JFK Airport in May this year to significantly improve the customer experience for JFK-Heathrow arrivals and departures.
In Ghana, Delta has been the only major airline that flies direct to the USA after other competitors such as United Airlines dropped.
Customers of the airline, most of whom are business people, have described the daily flight to and from the US as significant and rewarding and less stressful and expressed the hope that the airline would be able to fly directly to other destinations in the US, apart from JFK.
Story by Charles Benoni Okine