Delta Air Lines is to take over one of Virgin Atlantic’s two daily flights from Heathrow to Los Angeles from October 26.
The service will become the airline’s first non-stop flight between London and LA and its seventh nonstop route from London to the US.
At the same time, Virgin will begin operating one of Delta’s three daily flights between Heathrow and Atlanta.
The two partner airlines will codeshare on each other’s services.
"It’s great to see how our partnership with Delta is already proving fruitful to our customers," said Virgin CEO Craig Kreeger.
"In less than a year we will have co-located key business routes, delivered schedule changes to benefit our customers and provided enhanced experiences to our frequent fliers, who gain from reciprocal lounge access and the ability to earn and burn (frequent flyer points) across both carriers.
"This is just the beginning of demonstrating how a true joint venture between airlines should be operated to benefit customers."
