Delta CEO Fights Heathrow Move Away From Virgin Atlantic
Delta's chief executive has attacked Heathrow's plan to relocate the airline to Terminal 4 in 2028, away from partner Virgin Atlantic, and says Delta will pursue every remedy.
Delta Air Lines wants Heathrow to undo a terminal reshuffle that would pull it away from Virgin Atlantic, the carrier it co-owns in part. Chief executive Ed Bastian has promised to fight the plan.
A 2028 move to Terminal 4
The change comes out of a once-in-a-decade review by Heathrow Airport Limited. Five airlines have been ordered to switch terminals in 2028, and Delta is among them. It is set to move to Terminal 4.
For more than ten years Delta and Virgin Atlantic have shared Terminal 3. The airport operator says the review frees up capacity and eases congestion at Heathrow, where slots are among the most tightly controlled anywhere.
What Delta says it would lose
In a long statement on Monday, Bastian called the decision "short-sighted, deeply disappointing and bad for airline consumers". Delta argues that splitting the two carriers wastes years of investment and ignores the benefits passengers get from being under one roof.
Today the pair run shared check-in, ground labor and transfer coordination. They also use the Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse and the Virgin Revivals Lounge, which serves arriving passengers.
A practical cost, in Delta's telling, falls on connecting passengers. Once the airlines sit in different terminals, travelers changing between them would have to cross the airfield by bus.
Virgin and SkyTeam join the objection
Delta owns 49% of Virgin Atlantic, and both airlines say the move puts them at a disadvantage against rivals. Bastian says Delta will "pursue all available remedies" to reverse it, and he is urging the airport operator to reconsider.
Virgin is weighing legal options. SkyTeam, the alliance both carriers belong to, has also objected, arguing the move would leave its members worse off than airlines that share terminals.
Two carriers, many US routes
From Heathrow, Delta serves seven US gateways year-round: Atlanta, Boston, Detroit, Minneapolis/Saint Paul, New York-JFK, Salt Lake City and Seattle/Tacoma. That ties it with United for second place among US carriers, behind American, which flies year-round to nine US airports and adds one seasonal service.
Virgin Atlantic flies year-round to ten US cities, and adds Seattle/Tacoma in the Northern Hemisphere summer.
Our View
Two questions decide how far this goes. The first is whether the airport operator is willing to reopen an allocation it has just finished, since its public position so far is that the review is about capacity and congestion. The second is what legal route Virgin is considering, which has not been described. Until one of those answers appears, Bastian's "all available remedies" is a statement of intent, not a plan anyone has seen.
Source: Simple Flying