Delta’s Virgin Atlantic 49% purchase prises open the valuable London Heathrow hub - for SkyTeam?

Delta's purchase of Singapore Airlines' 49% share in Virgin Atlantic for USD360 million continues the massive US airline's international expansion and opens up a major front in the battle for Heathrow's valuable traffic flows. For Virgin, it once again means the airline has been saved from decline and even oblivion. The previous saviour, Singapore Airlines, paid almost three times as much, but had no prospect of leveraging the deal in the way Delta potentially may.

Almost since the day it acquired the stake for GBP600 million, Singapore Airlines has been trying to sell out of its barren partnership with Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Group. It has been a long and painful - not to mention embarrassing - saga. SIA has long since stopped trying to leverage its relationship.

Delta meanwhile is in global expansion mode, growing organically at home and investing in Gol and Aeromexico over the past year, as it sees a window of opportunity in the evolution of world aviation. The mega-airline is also expanding through metal neutral agreements on the Atlantic and the Pacific. This is a time when seemingly anything is now possible, where Air France can combine with one of the despised Gulf airlines, Qatar Airways can join oneworld and Emirates can team up with arch rival Qantas.