Delta will fly into London Heathrow next spring

As part of a new joint venture partnership with Air France, Delta Air Lines said it will gain access to London’s Heathrow Airport next spring, and will begin new non-stop service there from Atlanta and New York’s JFK Airport. The wide-ranging pact with its SkyTeam partner means that Delta and Air France will begin to share revenues and costs on their transatlantic routes – and that Delta will get three daily takeoff and landing slots from Air France at crowded Heathrow Airport, slots that are highly sought after by airlines because Heathrow is Europe’s largest airport, offering the most connections. Delta said that effective March 29, 2008 it will launch new Atlanta-Heathrow service once a day and JFK-Heathrow flights twice a day, using two-class 767-300s. The airline will continue its existing schedule into London Gatwick, including two daily flights from Atlanta, one from Cincinnati and one from JFK. In addition, Delta will add two other new transatlantic routes to France next year: Flights between JFK and Paris-Orly will operate four times a week starting June 2; and JFK-Lyon non-stops will go out once a day. Both those routes will use two-class 757-200s. The agreement also calls for code-sharing between the two airlines across the Atlantic next summer, starting with Delta’s code going onto an Air France Los Angeles-London Heathrow flight. Delta also plans to begin non-stop Salt Lake City-Paris-CDG service nest year.