Delta Adds New Service Between Philadelphia and London Heathrow

New service with joint venture partner Virgin Atlantic Airways increases trans-Atlantic network to 39 daily flights

News provided by

Nov 24, 2014, 04:01 ET

ATLANTA, Nov. 24, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Delta Air Lines (NYSE: DAL) and Virgin Atlantic Airways will expand their partnership between the U.S. and U.K. next year with the introduction of Delta's daily nonstop service from Philadelphia to London.

The service begins April 7, 2015 and will bring Delta's total number of daily flights between the U.S. and London Heathrow to 12. By next summer, the partnership will offer 39 daily flights between the U.S. and the U.K., including ten daily flights between New York and London.

"Delta remains committed to enhancing the customer experience as part of our joint venture with Virgin Atlantic," said Jeff Lobl, Delta's managing director – Network Planning and Alliances. "The addition of Philadelphia to London Heathrow service provides passengers with more choices and greater access to the U.K. from the U.S."

The service between London and Philadelphia is another step by Delta and Virgin Atlantic to strengthen their network between the U.S. and the U.K. Passenger choice was enhanced last month when Delta began operating one of Virgin Atlantic's two daily Los Angeles-London Heathrow flights on the same day Virgin Atlantic started serving one of Delta's three flights between Heathrow and its largest hub in Atlanta. Delta also began nonstop service from Seattle to London Heathrow in March this year.

Delta currently serves London Heathrow from seven cities in the U.S. – Atlanta, Boston, Detroit, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New York and Seattle – and will add an eighth city when it begins operating a daily flight between Newark and Heathrow in March 2015. Philadelphia will be Delta's ninth city with service to Heathrow. Customers can also fly direct to London Heathrow from Miami, San Francisco and Washington–Dulles through Delta's partnership with Virgin Atlantic.

Philadelphia-London Heathrow service will operate as follows:

Flight	Departs	Arrives
DL194	Philadelphia at 7:04 p.m.	Heathrow at 7:30 a.m. (+1 day)
DL195	Heathrow at 12:30 p.m.	Philadelphia at 4:00 p.m.

Delta's Philadelphia-London service will be operated using a Boeing 757-200 aircraft with 164 seats. Passengers travelling in the BusinessElite cabin will enjoy fully flat-bed seats and a range of dining options. Additionally, throughout the aircraft, all passengers will have access to on-demand in-flight entertainment.

To date, more than four million people have flown on the Delta-Virgin Atlantic partnership.

Delta Air Lines serves nearly 165 million customers each year. This year, Delta was named the 2014 Airline of the Year by Air Transport World magazine and was named to FORTUNE magazine's 50 Most Admired Companies, in addition to being named the most admired airline for the third time in four years. With an industry-leading global network, Delta and the Delta Connection carriers offer service to 318 destinations in 58 countries on six continents. Headquartered in Atlanta, Delta employs nearly 80,000 employees worldwide and operates a mainline fleet of more than 700 aircraft. The airline is a founding member of the SkyTeam global alliance and participates in the industry's leading trans-Atlantic joint venture with Air France-KLM and Alitalia as well as a newly formed 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, New York-LaGuardia, Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Salt Lake City, Seattle and Tokyo-Narita. Delta has invested billions of dollars in airport facilities, global products, services and technology to enhance the customer experience in the air and on the ground. Additional information is available on delta.com, Twitter @Delta, Google.com/+Delta, Facebook.com/delta and Delta's blog takingoff.delta.com.