Delta, Virgin Atlantic and Jet Airways expand cooperation with India-United States codeshare via London-Heathrow

More travel options for customers across North America to the Indian subcontinent

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Oct 31, 2016, 08:00 ET

ATLANTA and LONDON and MUMBAI, India, Oct. 31, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Delta Air Lines (NYSE: DAL) and Virgin Atlantic today announced expanded cooperation with Jet Airways to provide convenient codeshare connections for customers between key destinations across North America and India via London-Heathrow.

More travel options for customers across North America to the Indian subcontinent

Effective Nov. 2, Jet Airways customers flying between India and North America will be able to connect through London-Heathrow on to nine U.S. destinations operated by Delta. These destinations include: Atlanta, Boston, Detroit, Minneapolis, New York, Philadelphia, Portland, Salt Lake City and Seattle.

In turn, Delta and Virgin Atlantic customers flying between North America and India will be able to connect with Delta codeshare onto Jet Airways' flights to Mumbai and Delhi via London-Heathrow and onward to 20 destinations within India. The new Delta codeshare destinations include Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Bengaluru, Calicut, Chennai, Cochin, Coimbatore, Goa, Hyderabad, Indore, Jaipur, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mangalore, Pune, Trivandrum and Vadodara. The new routes complement Delta and Jet Airways destinations available through existing codeshare agreements via Amsterdam Airport Schiphol and Paris-Charles de Gaulle.

"With up to 11,000 people flying daily between India and North America, and with trade and tourism flows increasing between the U.S., U.K. and India, we are giving our customers more versatile schedule options between North America and India," said Nat Pieper, Delta's Senior Vice President – Europe, Middle East, Africa and India. "For the first time, customers will be able to hold a single Delta ticket from North America through London to India providing coordinated customer service all the way through to their final destinations."

Gaurang Shetty, Whole-time Director, Jet Airways, said, "This expanded cooperation over London-Heathrow, now allows us to offer our guests travelling to North America, multi-gateway connectivity over all of Jet Airways' European destinations. The codeshare arrangement with Delta Air Lines will enable Jet Airways guests to seamlessly connect to 24 cities across the United States of America over London, Paris and Amsterdam. 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."

In 2017 and subject to Government Approvals, Virgin Atlantic will expand their existing codeshare with Jet Airways placing its marketing code on Virgin Atlantic operated flights from London-Heathrow to 10 cities across North America including Miami, Newark, San Francisco and Washington.

Virgin Atlantic already operates a successful codeshare with Jet Airways on flights between five Indian cities and London-Heathrow via Delhi. This expanded codeshare is another milestone for the Delta and Virgin Atlantic joint venture – offering even greater network opportunities for North American customers and improving connections to and from India.

Erik F. Varwijk, EVP Commercial for Virgin Atlantic, said: "We are pleased to announce an extended codeshare with Jet Airways which will provide even more options for our customers in North America and India. From spring 2017 we will offer seamless connections between five Indian cities and ten U.S. destinations via London-Heathrow – helping to further boost tourism and trade and attracting more customers to Virgin Atlantic."

As well as the codeshare agreement, Delta SkyMiles, and Jet Airways' Jet Privilege members will soon be able to enjoy network-wide, reciprocal mileage earning and redemption privileges.

Customers requiring further information, and who wish to book flights between the U.S. and India, can do so by visiting delta.com, virgin-atlantic.com and jetairways.com.

About Delta:
Delta Air Lines serves nearly 180 million customers each year. In 2016, Delta was named to Fortune's top 50 Most Admired Companies in addition to being named the most admired airline for the fifth time in six years. Additionally, Delta has ranked No.1 in the Business Travel News Annual Airline survey for an unprecedented five consecutive years. With an industry-leading global network, Delta and the Delta Connection carriers offer service to 319 destinations in 57 countries on six continents. Headquartered in Atlanta, Delta employs more than 80,000 employees worldwide and operates a mainline fleet of more than 800 aircraft. The airline is a founding member of the SkyTeam global alliance and participates in the industry's leading transatlantic joint venture with Air France-KLM and Alitalia as well as a joint venture with Virgin Atlantic. Including its worldwide alliance partners, Delta offers customers more than 15,000 daily flights, with key hubs and markets including Amsterdam, Atlanta, Boston, Detroit, Los Angeles, Minneapolis/St. Paul, New York-JFK and LaGuardia, London-Heathrow, Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Salt Lake City, Seattle and Tokyo-Narita. Delta has invested billions of dollars in airport facilities, global products and services, and technology to enhance the customer experience in the air and on the ground. Additional information is available on the Delta News Hub, as well as delta.com, Twitter @DeltaNewsHub, Google.com/+Delta, and Facebook.com/delta.

About Jet Airways:
Jet Airways is India's premiere international airline operating flights to 73 destinations, including 51 in India and 22 across the world. Jet Airways' robust domestic network in India spans the length and breadth of the country covering metro cities, state capitals and emerging destinations. Beyond India, Jet Airways operates flights to key international destinations in South East Asia, South Asia, Middle East, Europe and North America.
The Jet Airways Group currently operates a fleet of 115 aircraft, comprising Boeing 777-300 ERs, Airbus A330-200/300, Next Generation Boeing 737s and ATR 72-500/600s. With an average age of 6.04 years, this is one of the youngest fleets in the region.
Jet Airways together with airberlin, Air Serbia, Air Seychelles, Alitalia, Etihad Airways, Etihad Regional operated by Darwin Airline, and NIKI, participates in Etihad Airways Partners, which brings together like-minded airlines to offer customers more choice through improved networks and schedules and enhanced frequent flyer benefits.

About Virgin Atlantic:
Virgin Atlantic was founded by entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson 30 years ago after he decided the UK aviation industry needed shaking up and style injected back into it. On 22nd June 1984, Virgin Atlantic's inaugural flight to Newark took place, on an aircraft filled with personal friends, celebrities and the media.
The airline has pioneered a range of innovations setting new standards of service. For example, Virgin Atlantic was the first airline to introduce the Premium Economy product, include a bar in every aircraft for Upper Class customers, offer seatback TVs on every seat in every cabin, develop a fully flatbed seat and fly a commercial aircraft on biofuels. Despite Virgin Atlantic's growth, the service still remains customer driven with an emphasis on value for money, quality, fun and innovation.
Today, Virgin Atlantic flies to 33 destinations worldwide, including locations across the United States, the Caribbean, Africa, the Middle East and Asia. Virgin Atlantic currently has a fleet of 39 aircraft, which is comprised of Boeing 747s, Boeing 787s, Airbus A340-600s and A330-300s.

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SOURCE Delta Air Lines