Delta and Virgin Atlantic have a transatlantic joint venture, and as part of that the airlines have just announced some significant expansion for next summer. There are a couple of things that make this interesting, right off the bat:
Continue reading: Delta & Virgin Atlantic’s 2020 Transatlantic Expansion
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Amazing. Jet Blue announce transatlantic services ... and all of a sudden, Delta decides Boston is a great market to fly out a lot from. They'll be overcapacity in the market, Delta will lose some money, but they hope Jet Blue loses more and will quit the lucrative transatlantic market that Skyteam and OneWorld etc have been trying to build a oligopoly on
Gatwick is great for the millions of people who live south and south east of London who have to drive past Gatwick to get to Heathrow. Is pretty good if you live near a Thameslink station. (As I used to at Farringdon)
Even if it is a bit more leisure oriented and and yields are lower, slots are cheaper and they’ll have no problem filling the planes.
If you're visiting London, is there any advantage of flying to Gatwick over Heathrow (or City)?
@Ben L.
Yes, it's been nearly twenty years since they flew to ORD. Been hoping they'd go back there too.
@ Zich.
City only from New York on BA. Otherwise, I'd stick with LHR. The Heathrow Express drops you at St. Pancras in 15 mins.
It would be great if Jet Blue could just bypass all of this and go into London City.
where are they getting all the Heathrow slots from? This frequency increase at Heathrow is in addition to new routes to new routes to Tel Aviv, Mumbai and Sao Paulo.
In terms of mobility,
For most visitors or using public transportation, LHR is better.
For residents to the south of London with cars, LGW is better.
Now if LGW is at least a 100 quid cheaper, now that changes things.
And While 767 vs 350 is a huge difference it is still better than flying on 757.
BOS-MAN from VS 330 to DL 767 is a bit of downgrade.
Responses to a few posts
VS definitly flew LHR-ORD in November 2008 because I flew with them. I remember because I scored a miles upgrade at the airport and it was my first UC flight.
Does Jetblue even have any slots at LHR or LGW yet? If they do have they advertised flights for sale? I know they want some but do they have any? LCY not going to happen with them as the cost of having to land at e.g.DUB or SNN to top up on fuel would increase fares and pax would be annoyed if it was only a fuel stop and they didn;t get pre clearance. The largest plane LCY can deal with due to the runway and takeoff and landing angles is the A220 (and one of the smaller variants)
Gatwick is arguably better access wise for many parts of the south east and London than LHR is. Single seat train ride to Victoria or London Bridge and St Pancras and even towards Cambridge to the north and Brighton to the South. Clapham Junction opens up the South West of England as well.
Remember BA also has an LGW-JFK service as well.
Maybe Delta also figures Norwegian will implode by Spring 2020 too and grab that market share.
“We’re excited to return to London Gatwick, which is where we launched our first U.K. destination over 40 years ago"
Reminded me that I flew from Atlanta to Gatwick in 1985 on a Delta L-1011.
It was only my second ever flight in First, although it was about as good as Premium Economy is now.
If only Delta would expand on the west coast... Hoping for long haul flights from Nor Cal.
Renting a car in Gatwick was much easier. Unless they have moved, the car rental pickups are on terminal, no annoyingly long bus rides like at Heathrow.
I just flew on both Delta and Virgin Atlantic - Delta from Atlanta to London and Virgin Atlantic on the return. I would say that if they are increasing their transatlantic partnership then they should make their services and products more align. While both flights were nice, the service on Virgin - from the attitude of the FAs to the food option and quality - was much better. While Delta flew a newer plane and had a better PTV overall Virgin was better in my opinion. You can see the full review on my blog.
Another thing was that my return flight - operated and flown by Virgin - was marketed and advertised with a Delta flight number. Yes I did book the flight on Delta but even on my Virgin Atlantic issued boarding pass it gave me the Delta flight number instead of the Virgin one. It seemed as if it was a Delta flight just operated by Virgin
I thought it was hilarious that Delta’s press release touted Gatwick for anyone visiting Buckingham Palace or Westminster Abbey. That’s crazy. Gatwick is not logical for anyone going to Central London. I also note that Gatwick services will include a 757, which is a 2x2 configuration in business-class. They’re clearly hoping that tourists, global upgrade certificate-redeemers, and Sky Miles award-redemption customers go through Gatwick with their subpar product than fill up seats on flights to Heathrow, which are at a premium in business-class.
Also, flying in business-class to Manchester makes no sense because Manchester doesn’t have ANY of the premium services that Delta and Virgin Atlantic offers at Heathrow. This includes an arrivals lounge.
If anyone is visiting Buckingham palace direct from the airport Gatwick is the one to pick. 30 mins on the train to Victoria and a short walk round the corner. The jubilee line wouldn’t have got as far a Turnham Green by that point and a it’s a slog from Paddington to the palace.
Central London around St. Paul's is also significantly easier from Gatwick. Nonstop to City Thameslink or Blackfriars beats slogging though the Tube after the HX.
Given the choice I would fly to Gatwick or even Stansted. I was very disappointed when US airlines stopped serving Gatwick. It's just a much easier airport to deal with even though it's further from where I want to go to when I go to England.
With regard to aligning the services, I agree there too. Trying to move from a Delta operated flight to a Virgin one when you have a Delta ticket, is often impossible if you are booked in first class on an award or upgrade. Yet if there is a flight disruption, as there was for me the other day, all of a sudden it's really easy to do these changes. I wish it were as easy to change to a Virgin operated flight in first class when you arrive early, as it is when there is a disruption
@ ed
If you're on a Jubilee line train which passes through Turnham Green, then there is something very wrong with the train you're on!
But I agree re: Buckingham Palace and Gatwick, you can walk from Victoria station to the palace.
Gatwick is such a nicer airport than Heathrow so that would always be my preference if available. As a previous person stated getting a rental car there is much easier than at Heathrow. Also, the Gatwick Express takes you into central London in a few minutes, again much easier than getting out of Heathrow.
@Zich - depends on what you value. LHR is a much larger airport with more air connections, and public transit is better at LHR. Car rental at Gatwick is much easier (or was several years ago). LHR has the Heathrow Express into Paddington, Gatwick has the Gatwick Express into Victoria. As a tourist, many sights (Buckingham Palace, St. Pauls, Tower of London and Tower Bridge, etc) are easier from Gatwick. If you are a business traveler, LHR is probably your better bet. Leisure, though, you can make a good argument for LGW - provided your airline flies there.
@ RTBones
“...public transit is better at LHR”
Well, yes, it is if, like you, you pretend Thameslink doesn’t exist — a mainline railway that takes you direct from LGW through the very heart of London and carries on to Cambridge or Peterborough, or takes you south to Brighton. There are other direct train services from LGW, including all the way along the south coast to Southampton.
From Heathrow the mainline train will take you to, er, Paddington, which is pretty much the worst-sited of any of the railway termini that ring central London. And that’s it.
LGW is currently vastly easier than LHR to get to for swathes of people who live north and east of London.
Things will rebalance a little when the long-overdue Crossrail (“Elizabeth line”) finally opens at the end of 2020 or, maybe, 2021.
@Airfarer. The Heathrow Express goes into Paddington, which is not as useful as Kings Cross/St Pancras.
Virgin Atlantic's Gatwick to New York route just seems to be them taking on British Airways on that route. Even though BA is mainly flying this route to compete with Norwegian. Does it make sense? Not really but it does serve a purpose as Virgin try to cement their position as a more exciting alternative to BA and Norwegian at Gatwick.