Delta has quietly dropped plans for a year-round service on the Chicago O’Hare to London Heathrow route.
The carrier has decided to concentrate on its new transatlantic tie-in with Virgin Atlantic rather than operate its own Chicago-London service, which it only announced publicly last month.
The O’Hare-Heathrow service would have begun in October.
A Delta spokesperson said the company will evaluate the Delta – Virgin transatlantic offering and look to optimize the transatlantic schedule between the two carriers.
"Virgin continues to service the route from Heathrow during the summer season," Delta said.
Earlier this month, Delta and Virgin Atlantic struck a codeshare deal for 108 routes in North America and the UK.
The new Delta-Virgin alliance has amped up competition in the lucrative US-UK transatlantic market.
The American Airlines – British Airways codeshare partnership accounts for a 59% transatlantic market share but the Delta-Virgin deal is narrowing the gap, giving it an estimated 24% of business.
