Jet Airways and Virgin Atlantic further expands codeshare agreement

Codeshare partnership will provide more travel options between nine destinations in North America and the Indian subcontinent

MUMBAI, India, 2017-Apr-20 — /Travel PR News/ — Jet Airways and Virgin Atlantic today announced a further expansion of their codeshare agreement between India and the United States, providing greater choice and enhanced connectivity via London Heathrow. The new agreement will make it even easier for guests to tailor their perfect trip by combining flights from Jet Airways, Virgin Atlantic and Delta Air Lines in a single booking thanks to the extended codeshare.

From April 19, 2017, Jet Airways guests travelling between India and the United States can connect through London Heathrow on to nine U.S. destinations operated by Virgin Atlantic; Atlanta, Boston, Newark, Washington (IAD), New York, Los Angeles, Miami, San Francisco and Seattle*.

This expansion builds on the existing agreement between Jet Airways and Virgin Atlantic in place since 2009 – enabling Virgin Atlantic guests to travel on Jet Airways operated services between Mumbai and London Heathrow in addition to the airline’s own direct Delhi to London service. In 2015 this codeshare was extended on to Jet Airways domestic services allowing Virgin Atlantic guests to travel between London Heathrow and five destinations across India via Delhi or Mumbai.

Gaurang Shetty, Whole-time Director, Jet Airways, said, “Offering greater choice and connectivity to our guests has always been a hallmark of our network strategy. The new codeshares build on the success of our ongoing cooperation with Delta Air Lines and Virgin Atlantic over London Heathrow and will provide our guests with more connectivity to and within the United States. Further, our loyalty program partnership will also enable the frequent flyers of both carriers to accrue and redeem their miles across each other’s entire network.”

Shai Weiss, Chief Commercial Officer for Virgin Atlantic, said, “We’re really pleased to extend our agreement with Jet Airways to offer customers even more choice when travelling between India and the US, via London Heathrow. From this week customers of both airlines can travel from five destinations across India with Jet Airways, and connect via London Heathrow to nine US destinations with Virgin Atlantic including Boston and Los Angeles, as well as many more US destinations with transatlantic partner Delta Airlines via key hubs such as New York and Atlanta. This innovative codeshare allows customers to tailor their journey using a combination of flights from Jet Airways, Virgin Atlantic and their transatlantic partner Delta Air Lines – whilst continuing to benefit from a single check in and bag drop.”

In October last year, Delta Air Lines and Jet Airways announced a codeshare cooperation between India and United States over London Heathrow, where Delta guests flying between North America and India can connect on flights operated by Jet Airways to 20 destinations within India. The Delta codeshare destinations include Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Bengaluru, Calicut, Chennai, Cochin, Coimbatore, Goa, Hyderabad, Indore, Jaipur, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mangalore, Pune, Trivandrum and Vadodara. Likewise guests flying on Jet Airways can connect on to Delta operated services via London Heathrow to eighteen cities across the US, including Atlanta, Boston, Detroit, New York-JFK, Minneapolis, Portland, Philadelphia, Salt Lake City, Austin, Charlotte, Columbus, Denver, Las Vegas, Orlando, Phoenix, San Diego, St. Louis and Tampa .

“Delta’s codeshare with Jet Airways has seen positive growth in passenger numbers since we launched the agreement six months ago, reflecting the strong demand for air links between the United States and India,” said Nat Pieper, Delta’s senior vice president Europe, Middle East, Africa & India. “The introduction of this new codeshare, increases travel options even more and further supports the Delta-Virgin Atlantic relationship.”

Tickets under the new codeshare are now available for sale for travel effective April 19, 2017. Guests requiring further information, and who wish to book flights between the U.S. and India, can do so by visiting jetairways.com and virgin-atlantic.com.

* Codeshare on Seattle opens for travel effective 1st May 2017.

About Jet Airways
Jet Airways is India’s premier international airline which operates direct flights to 65 destinations, including India and overseas. Jet Airways’ robust domestic India network spans the length and breadth of the country covering metro cities, state capitals and emerging destinations. Beyond India, Jet Airways operates flights to key international destinations in South East Asia, South Asia, Middle East, Europe and North America. The Jet Airways Group currently operates a fleet of 112 aircraft, comprising Boeing 777-300 ERs, Airbus A330-200/300, Next Generation Boeing 737s (700/800/900) and ATR 72-500/600s.

Jet Airways, together with airberlin, Air Serbia, Air Seychelles, Alitalia, Etihad Airways, Etihad Regional operated by Darwin Airline, and NIKI, participates in Etihad Airways Partners. Etihad Airways is part of the Etihad Aviation Group, which also holds minority investments in each of these airlines.

About Virgin Atlantic:
Virgin Atlantic was founded by entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson 30 years ago after he decided the UK aviation industry needed shaking up and style injected back into it. On 22nd June 1984, Virgin Atlantic’s inaugural flight to Newark took place, on an aircraft filled with personal friends, celebrities and the media.

The airline has pioneered a range of innovations setting new standards of service. For example, Virgin Atlantic was the first airline to introduce the Premium Economy product, include a bar in every aircraft for Upper Class customers, offer seatback TVs on every seat in every cabin, develop a fully flatbed seat and fly a commercial aircraft on biofuels. Despite Virgin Atlantic’s growth, the service still remains customer driven with an emphasis on value for money, quality, fun and innovation.

Today, Virgin Atlantic flies to over 30 destinations worldwide, including locations across the United States, the Caribbean, Africa, the Middle East and Asia. Virgin Atlantic currently has a fleet of 39 aircraft, which is comprised of Boeing 747s, Boeing 787s, Airbus A340-600s and A330-300s.

About Delta Air Lines
Delta Air Lines serves more than 180 million customers each year. In 2017, Delta was named to Fortune’s top 50 Most Admired Companies in addition to being named the most admired airline for the sixth time in seven years. Additionally, Delta has ranked No.1 in the Business Travel News Annual Airline survey for an unprecedented six consecutive years. With an industry-leading global network, Delta and the Delta Connection carriers offer service to 322 destinations in 58 countries on six continents. Headquartered in Atlanta, Delta employs more than 80,000 employees worldwide and operates a mainline fleet of more than 800 aircraft. The airline is a founding member of the SkyTeam global alliance and participates in the industry’s leading transatlantic joint venture with Air France-KLM and Alitalia as well as a 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 and LaGuardia, London-Heathrow, Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Salt Lake City, Seattle and Tokyo-Narita. Delta has invested billions of dollars in airport facilities, global products and services, and technology to enhance the customer experience in the air and on the ground. Additional information is available on the Delta News Hub, as well as delta.com, Twitter @DeltaNewsHub, Google.com/+Delta, and Facebook.com/delta.

SOURCE: Jet Airways (India) Ltd.

Media Contacts
Mr. Gaurav Sahni
DGM, Corporate Communications
Jet Airways (India) Ltd. Jetair House, 13 Community Centre, ,
Yusuf Sarai , New Delhi 110049
India
gaurav.sahni@jetairways.com

Ms. Srirupa Sen
Manager, Corporate Communications
Jet Airways (India) Ltd.
Siroya Centre, Sahar Airport Road,
Andheri East
Mumbai 400 099
India
ssen@jetairways.com