Delta and Virgin get US approval to co-ordinate fares on transatlantic flights

US-based Delta Air Lines and Virgin Atlantic, the carrier majority owned by British billionaire Richard Branson, have received US anti-trust immunity to let them co-ordinate fares and schedules on flights across the Atlantic.

Yesterday’s approval by the US department of transportation lets the airlines combine their networks and complete a commercial relationship driven by Delta’s purchase in June of a 49 per cent stake in the UK carrier.

No other airlines opposed the tie-up, the department said yesterday in a filing.

Delta and Virgin Atlantic began a code-share agreement earlier this year, enabling them to book passengers on each other’s aircraft on a single itinerary.

Anti-trust immunity
Anti-trust immunity will let them deepen ties by sharing costs and revenue as though they were a single entity. US and EU laws ban foreign majority ownership of airlines. The move is also a challenge to British Airways and AMR Corp's American Airlines, which control more than half of transatlantic service.

Delta, based in Atlanta, bought the stake in Virgin from Singapore Airlines for $360 million (€267 million) this year to add transatlantic flights, the world’s richest market for premium passengers.

Delta president Ed Bastian said: "The freedom to co-operate fully with Virgin Atlantic will initiate a new era of greater competition in the New York to London market."

Virgin chief executive Craig Kreeger said the decision represented a "huge opportunity" for the company.

In their filing to the department, Delta and Virgin Atlantic noted that almost 60 per cent of the slots at London’s Heathrow airport are controlled by British Airways and its joint-venture partners. As a result, the carriers dominate air travel between the US and the UK. – (Additional reporting: Bloomberg)