Delta Air Lines and Virgin Atlantic Announce New Summer Flying

Delta Air Lines (NYSE: DAL) and VirginAtlantic Airways are celebrating a significant expansion of theirtrans-Atlantic partnership with the introduction of six new daily services.Delta Air Lines and the Delta Connection carriers offer service to nearly 370destinations on six continents. For more information visit news.delta.com.The two airlines begin their summer schedule this weekend and will offer up to39 return trans-Atlantic flights a day between the U.K. and 15 destinationsacross North America. The joint schedule now includes 10 daily flights betweenNew York and London Heathrow, with eight daily departures from New York-JFKand two departures from Newark. Customers travelling between JFK and LondonHeathrow will benefit from a memory schedule* of regular evening departuresfrom New York."The Delta and Virgin Atlantic partnership continues to offer increasedcustomer choice on the trans-Atlantic routes to London Heathrow – inparticular from New York," said Perry Cantarutti, Delta's Senior VicePresident, Europe, Middle East and Africa. "The strength of Delta's network inthe United States and Virgin Atlantic's strong presence at London Heathrowdelivers a very compelling proposition that allows customers in the U.K. toeasily connect to more than 200 destinations in the United States."Virgin Atlantic is launching a second daily service between Los Angeles andHeathrow, complemented by significant investment on the ground with thefirst-ever Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse in Los Angeles due to open next month.Combined with the Delta service launched in October 2014, the partnership willoffer three daily flights from Los Angeles to London and expects to carryclose to 400,000 annual passengers on the route.Also launching this weekend is a seasonal second-daily Virgin Atlantic servicebetween Atlanta and London Heathrow and a second service between San Franciscoand 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 whichare a further demonstration of how our joint-venture partnership isbenefitting customers. Both Virgin Atlantic and Delta Air Lines put ourcustomers at the heart of what we do. We are passionate about giving them thebest flying experience possible, and we look forward to welcoming passengerson board."The two airlines are maximizing the benefits of their joint-venturepartnership and increasing passenger choice by aligning schedules to best meetcustomer demand. This will see a transfer of operations that begins thisweekend with Delta flying one of the Newark-to-London Heathrow servicespreviously operated by Virgin Atlantic. Meanwhile, Virgin Atlantic will takeover Delta's Atlanta-to-Manchester service.Further joint-venture services will be introduced later in the summer. Theseinclude: o A new daily Delta service between Philadelphia and London Heathrow starting April 26 o A new daily Delta service between New York-JFK and Manchester starting May 21 o A new daily Virgin Atlantic service between London Heathrow and Detroit starting June 1 o 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 Caribbeanisland of Tobago on Sunday and will be offering a weekly service during thesummer and a twice-weekly service in the winter. This summer, Delta flights between London Heathrow and Boston, Los Angeles andNew York will operate from Heathrow's Terminal 3 alongside all Virgin Atlanticservices. Delta flights between Heathrow and Atlanta, Detroit, Minneapolis-StPaul, Philadelphia and Seattle will operate from Terminal 4. Delta One andUpper Class passengers departing from London Heathrow Terminal 3 will be ableto enjoy a seamless transfer from car to lounge via the Virgin Atlantic UpperClass Wing. Business class passengers travelling from Heathrow Terminal 4 willenjoy complimentary access to the SkyTeam lounge.Since the start of the joint venture, more than five million people havetravelled on its services with 10,000 people per month connecting between thetwo airlines last year. The new schedule offers connecting itineraries to 215destinations.Customers wishing to book travel on Delta and Virgin Atlantic's nonstopservices from the United States to the U.K. can visit www.delta.com andwww.virgin-atlantic.com or see their travel agent.