Delta and SkyTeam partner Air France will
pool transatlantic routes, revenue and costs beginning next spring
under a newly forged joint venture that will put both carriers into
the U.S.-London Heathrow market.
The joint venture
comes three months after the Transportation Department approved
expanded antitrust immunity for Delta and Air France as well as for
fellow Sky Team members KLM, Northwest, Alitalia and CSA Czech
Airlines.
In what the
carriers call the first phase of the joint venture, Delta will
begin service from Atlanta and New York (Kennedy) to Heathrow on
March 29 using Air France slots at the London airport. Those
flights are already loaded into res systems.
Heathrow is
currently off limits to all U.S. carriers except United and
American, but that will change next spring when the U.S.-European
Union Open Skies Agreement takes effect.
Air France also
plans to launch Los Angeles-London nonstops.
A London calling for Delta
For Delta, the
combination of Open Skies and the alliance with Air France opens
the door to Heathrow, one of Delta's most sought-after
goals.
"It is a huge
opportunity. The timing is perfect for us to enter into this joint
venture," Pam Elledge, Delta's senior vice president of global
sales and distribution, told Travel Weekly.
"For the first
time, Delta has an opportunity, along with Air France, to have an
expanded customer reach and service to one of the most important
markets in the world," she said.
In addition to the
new Heathrow services, Delta plans to launch routes from New York
(Kennedy) to Paris (Orly), operating four times a week starting
June 2, plus a daily New York nonstop to Lyon, France, starting
July 15. Salt Lake City-Paris nonstops are also planned.
Overall, the first
phase of the joint agreement will result in 19 combined daily,
transatlantic flights between the carriers.
"Paris Orly,
Heathrow and Paris Charles de Gaulle are markets that we likely
would not have gone into if we had just been a stand-alone,"
Elledge said.
By next summer,
Delta and Air France intend to begin selling most of their
transatlantic flights on a codeshare basis.
Projecting ahead to
2010, the joint venture will encompass all transatlantic flights
operated by the carriers between Europe, the Mediterranean and
North America as well as Los Angeles-Tahiti.
Delta and Air
France are among the first carriers to take advantage of the Open
Skies accord signed in April between the U.S. and the
E.U.
"Fortunately for
both Delta and Air France, we have been in a strong partnership for
a number of years," Elledge said.
Going forward,
Delta and Air France will work to align their respective sales and
distribution strategies to create "seamlessness" between them,
according to Elledge. Ultimately, she said, "there will be no
differentiation" between Delta and Air France, a level of
integration and cooperation widely attributed to Northwest and KLM,
which is owned by Air France.
"That takes it to a
higher level than you have in a [typical] codeshare relationship,"
she said. "It will not matter whether we sell a Delta or Air France
seat because we are sharing in all of those costs."
The joint venture
with Air France is part of a larger effort by Delta to bolster its
international route network.
Delta, which
emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy in April, previously announced
plans to add 14 international routes to Europe, Africa, the Middle
East and Latin America out of Kennedy.
To
contact reporter Michael Milligan, send e-mail to [email protected].