Delta Air Lines, Virgin Atlantic prepared for conflict at London airport after terminal changes

Delta Air Lines and Virgin Atlantic are both pushing back hard on Heathrow Airport in London after it announced moves to have their currently integrated terminals split and Delta moved.

Currently, Delta and Virgin Group, which includes Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Galactic, are partners in London for flight operations.

Their terminals are both currently next to each other.

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Heathrow announced it would be separating Delta from Virgin and moving it to a separate terminal, which both airlines said would complicate things for staff and passengers.

Delta CEO Ed Bastian put out a statement on Nov. 2 saying the decision to separate Delta and virgin was “short-sighted, deeply disappointing and bad for airline customers.”

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The separation, if efforts to challenge it are unsuccessful, would end a co-located operation that has existed with the two airlines in London for more than a decade, according to Bastian.

Bastian said Delta was willing to pursue all available remedies to correct the decision and urged Heathrow Airport Limited, the company managing the airport, to reconsider it “in favor of a more prudent and thoughtful outcome that puts travelers first” while still allowing healthy competition.

In their own statements, Virgin Group founder Richard Branson picked apart the decision on its own stated explanation for the airport’s choice.

“Heathrow says it wants to bring airline partners together and improve connections. So why is pulling our partnership apart the answer? Passengers deserve better connections and stronger competition. Not extra hurdles and higher fares,” Branson said in a statement.

Additional comments from the Virgin Group came from Virgin Atlantic CEO Corneel Koster.

He said Heathrow’s decision to separate Virgin from its Delta partner was “completely unacceptable, creating unnecessary friction for customers, weakening competition and reducing choice.”

Koster said there was no other hub airport in the world that would try to force such well-integrated partners apart. He said if it goes through, it would have a negative impact on millions of travelers.

Channel 2 Action News asked Heathrow officials for a statement on the change of terminal assignments and is waiting for a response.

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