Virgin Atlantic and Delta Air Lines keep expanding their JV to provide blanket UK-US coverage

Delta Air Lines and Virgin Atlantic continue to steadily grow their trans-Atlantic joint venture with the expansion of markets outside the more competitive routes of London Heathrow to New York and Los Angeles. With the feed both airlines bring to the partnership, routes that would be unviable on a standalone basis are becoming promising.

The latest addition is a new service from Delta's smaller Salt Lake City hub to London Heathrow to be launched during the summer travel season in 2016. Delta is also launching new service from JFK to Edinburgh in conjunction with Virgin Atlantic during that time, resulting in new competition to American Airlines.

Delta and Virgin Atlantic have quickly leveraged Virgin's strong position at Heathrow to create an expansive trans-Atlantic network between the US and London, enabling the two carriers to close the gap with market leaders American and British Airways. At a bit more than a year and a half old, the joint venture is still in its early stages. But the rapid network changes initiated by Delta and Virgin Atlantic show the airlines are working to quickly spool up to the desired level of maturity for their tie-up.