Virgin Australia, Delta end Joint Venture partnership

Virgin Australia and Delta Air Lines have formally ended their trans-Pacific Joint Venture relationship, ahead of Virgin's new partnership with United Airlines taking wing in April 2022.

The airlines have reportedly advised the United States Department of Transportation that their JV days are done, although the commercial partnership has been paused since Virgin's decision in late 2020 to halt its Los Angeles flights and retire its Boeing 777 fleet.

Speaking with Executive Traveller in October 2020 Clare Black, Delta's General Manager of Australia and New Zealand said at the time that "the JV is reliant on Virgin Australia flying to LA again."

Of course, not only are there doubts that Virgin will return to Los Angeles - for that it would need to order a new type of aircraft, such as the Boeing 787, to replace its scrapped Boeing 777s - but United Airlines has now replaced Delta as Virgin's partner for flights to the USA and South America.

However, rather than being a fully-fledged joint venture, the Virgin-United alliance will include codeshare flights as well as reciprocal loyalty benefits for members of Virgin's Velocity Frequent Flyer and United's MileagePlus programs.

For its part, Delta Air Lines says it will continue flying between Sydney and Los Angeles.

"Delta's operations in Australia are not impacted by the termination of the agreement with Virgin Australia, and we continue to operate nonstop service to/from Sydney," a spokeswoman for the airline has confirmed to Executive Traveller.

Intriguingly, the spokeswoman added that "Delta's partnership and codeshare agreement with Virgin Australia will end in June 2022" - a timeline seemingly at odds with Virgin's statement of its alliance with United "commencing in April 2022," but which the spokeswoman described as "part of a transition period agreed between DL and VA."

"We remain in discussions with Virgin Australia on transitions and next steps and are working together to ensure a smooth experience for our customers."

Virgin Australia says it will "honour all Delta customer bookings, and all Delta customers booked on Virgin Australia services will continue to enjoy all current benefits of the partnership."

"Velocity and SkyMiles Points/miles and Status Credit earn and redemption will also continue. Further details regarding the wind down of the Delta partnership will be announced in early 2022."

Source " Executive Traveller "