Delta was in negotiations to buy a stake in Virgin Atlantic for three years before the deal was finally agreed.
The two airlines announced in December that Delta had purchased Singapore Airlines’ 49 per cent share in Virgin.
Delta and Virgin are also planning to operate a transatlantic joint venture, which will benefit from the opening of an expanded and improved Terminal 4 at New York’s JFK airport in May.
Delta’s executive vice president Glen Hauenstein, speaking at a press conference in London, confirmed that talks about acquiring a shareholding in Virgin had been ongoing for three years.
The deal is expected to be completed in the autumn at the earliest, subject to clearance from regulators in the US and Europe. The two airlines will offer a total of 21 daily flights from Heathrow to the US by the end of the year.
Delta wants to use the partnership with Virgin to gain further inroads into the corporate travel market. The airline said it had increased corporate travel revenues by 8 per cent in February despite trimming capacity by 5 per cent. This growth was helped by more demand from sectors such as the banking, automotive and technology sectors.
President Ed Bastian said: “One of the strategies that has defined the turnaround at Delta is to make our product more appealing to business travellers. They are higher yielding passengers and it’s a premium you desire on your network. They are the customers paying a higher premium onboard and have higher requirements, and we are satisfying that.
“We’ve been having great success in corporate market share, we’ve been growing that market in double digit growth in recent years.
“So even though the overall market is flat in terms of capacity, our corporate figures are up 8 per cent in February, indicating a continuing share shift in that market – given that the market is flat and in fact our seats in the market are down by 5 per cent for that month, yet our corporate revenues are up. That’s across all of the network, including international network."
Delta will begin a third daily service between Heathrow and Atlanta from March 31 which will increase the number of daily flights to Heathrow to nine. The airline will offer 30,000 weekly seats between Heathrow and the US this summer. Delta also flies between Manchester and Atlanta.
As part of the planned partnership, Virgin and Delta will also align the two carrier’s frequent fliers programmes.
delta.com
virgin-atlantic.com