A major realignment of transatlantic services provided by partners Delta Air Lines and Virgin Atlantic is to start being introduced from this weekend.
Six new daily services between the UK and US will be followed by further joint venture flights added later in the summer.
The two airlines start their summer schedule this weekend by offering up to 39 return flights a day between the UK and 15 US destinations.
The joint network includes 10 daily flights between New York and Heathrow, with eight daily departures from New York-JFK and two from Newark.
Virgin Atlantic is starting a second daily service between Los Angeles and Heathrow, and is due to open the first Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse in Los Angeles next month.
The partners will offer three daily flights from Los Angeles to London and expect to carry almost 400,000 passengers a year on the route.
A seasonal double-daily Virgin Atlantic service between Atlanta and Heathrow is part of the expanded summer schedule. A second daily flight between San Francisco and Heathrow will operate five days a week over the summer.
A transfer of operations also begins this weekend with Delta flying one of the Newark-Heathrow services previously operated by Virgin Atlantic. Meanwhile, Virgin Atlantic will take over Delta’s Manchester-Atlanta service.
Further joint-venture services to be introduced later in the summer include:
- A new daily Delta service between Philadelphia and Heathrow from April 26
- A new daily Delta service between New York-JFK and Manchester from May 21
- A new daily Virgin Atlantic service between Heathrow and Detroit from June 1
- Virgin Atlantic is running a series of special seasonal services from Belfast to Orlando in June and July and Glasgow to Las Vegas in September and October.
The UK carrier is resuming flights from Gatwick to Tobago on Sunday, offering a weekly service during the summer and a twice-weekly in the winter.
Delta flights between Heathrow and Boston, Los Angeles and New York will operate from the London hub’s Terminal 3 alongside all Virgin Atlantic services.
Delta’s senior vice president, Europe, Middle East and Africa. Perry Cantarutti, said: “The strength of Delta’s network in the US and Virgin Atlantic’s strong presence at Heathrow delivers a very compelling proposition that allows customers in the UK to easily connect to more than 200 destinations in the US.”
Virgin Atlantic network and alliances director, Joe Thompson, said: “We’re very excited to offer this range of new services and frequencies which are a further demonstration of how our joint-venture partnership is benefitting customers.”