Delta and Virgin Atlantic tweak their joint network

Delta and its joint-venture equity partner Virgin Atlantic are shuffling some of their routes, allowing Delta to add non-stop flights between Portland and London Heathrow. Under this latest shake-up, Delta will launch 4X-weekly flights between Portland and London Heathrow on May 26, 2017. The US carrier will also add a second Detroit-London Heathrow service from May 25, 2017, replacing Virgin’s daily service on the route, as well as a third Atlanta-Heathrow frequency, trimming Virgin’s 2X-daily service to daily. In return, Virgin will take over Delta’s daily Heathrow-Seattle service and its daily Manchester-New York JFK route from May 25, 2017. Delta will resume New York JFK-Manchester in winter 2017. Virgin will operate Heathrow-Seattle with its larger Boeing 787-9s and will use A330-300s on Manchester-New York JFK. “The network changes highlight the strength and flexibility of our joint venture,” Virgin Atlantic EVP commercial Erik Varwijk said. From March 2017, the airlines’ joint schedule will include 42 nonstop transatlantic flights, including 28 from Heathrow and 14 flights from other UK cities.<br/>