Jet Airways and Virgin Atlantic enhance India - USA connectivity via London Heathrow

Jet Airways and Virgin Atlantic today announced a further expansion of their codeshare agreement between India and the United States, providing greater choice and enhanced connectivity via London Heathrow. The new agreement will make it even easier for guests to tailor their perfect trip by combining flights from Jet Airways, Virgin Atlantic and Delta Air Lines in a single booking thanks to the extended codeshare.

From April 19, 2017, Jet Airways guests travelling between India and the United States can connect through London Heathrow on to nine U.S. destinations operated by Virgin Atlantic; Atlanta, Boston, Newark, Washington (IAD), New York, Los Angeles, Miami, San Francisco and Seattle*.

This expansion builds on the existing agreement between Jet Airways and Virgin Atlantic in place since 2009 - enabling Virgin Atlantic guests to travel on Jet Airways operated services between Mumbai and London Heathrow in addition to the airline's own direct Delhi to London service. In 2015 this codeshare was extended on to Jet Airways domestic services allowing Virgin Atlantic guests to travel between London Heathrow and five destinations across India via Delhi or Mumbai.

Gaurang Shetty, Whole-time Director, Jet Airways, said, "Offering greater choice and connectivity to our guests has always been a hallmark of our network strategy. The new codeshares build on the success of our ongoing cooperation with Delta Air Lines and Virgin Atlantic over London Heathrow and will provide our guests with more connectivity to and within the United States. Further, our loyalty program partnership will also enable the frequent flyers of both carriers to accrue and redeem their miles across each other's entire network."

Shai Weiss, Chief Commercial Officer for Virgin Atlantic, said, "We're really pleased to extend our agreement with Jet Airways to offer customers even more choice when travelling between India and the US, via London Heathrow. From this week customers of both airlines can travel from five destinations across India with Jet Airways, and connect via London Heathrow to nine US destinations with Virgin Atlantic including Boston and Los Angeles, as well as many more US destinations with transatlantic partner Delta Airlines via key hubs such as New York and Atlanta. This innovative codeshare allows customers to tailor their journey using a combination of flights from Jet Airways, Virgin Atlantic and their transatlantic partner Delta Air Lines - whilst continuing to benefit from a single check in and bag drop."

In October last year, Delta Air Lines and Jet Airways announced a codeshare cooperation between India and United States over London Heathrow, where Delta guests flying between North America and India can connect on flights operated by Jet Airways to 20 destinations within India. The Delta codeshare destinations include Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Bengaluru, Calicut, Chennai, Cochin, Coimbatore, Goa, Hyderabad, Indore, Jaipur, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mangalore, Pune, Trivandrum and Vadodara. Likewise guests flying on Jet Airways can connect on to Delta operated services via London Heathrow to eighteen cities across the US, including Atlanta, Boston, Detroit, New York-JFK, Minneapolis, Portland, Philadelphia, Salt Lake City, Austin, Charlotte, Columbus, Denver, Las Vegas, Orlando, Phoenix, San Diego, St. Louis and Tampa .

"Delta's codeshare with Jet Airways has seen positive growth in passenger numbers since we launched the agreement six months ago, reflecting the strong demand for air links between the United States and India," said Nat Pieper, Delta's senior vice president Europe, Middle East, Africa & India. "The introduction of this new codeshare, increases travel options even more and further supports the Delta-Virgin Atlantic relationship."

Tickets under the new codeshare are now available for sale for travel effective April 19, 2017. Guests requiring further information, and who wish to book flights between the U.S. and India, can do so by visiting jetairways.com and virgin-atlantic.com.

* Codeshare on Seattle opens for travel effective 1st May 2017.