Virgin-United partnership marks new milestone

Virgin Australia and United Airlines have jointly filed for approval from the US Department of Transportation for their previously announced upcoming codeshare agreement. According to reports, the paperwork was filed with the DOT this week, ahead of the planned launch of the partnership in April 2022. It comes one month after the airlines revealed their partnership plans, and marks a major move for Virgin Australia, as it drops previous US codeshare partner Delta Air Lines. Pending all regulatory approvals, the codeshare agreement would see United and Virgin codeshare on all flights to and from Australia as well as flights within both Australia and the US. The two airlines specified to the DOT that they have already reached an agreement on which routes will be on codeshare. It will see United’s network expand out from just Sydney and Melbourne to more than 40 Australian cities and regions, while Virgin – not currently servicing its own long-haul international network – will sprawl to the US, Mexico, South America and the Caribbean.<br/>