Delta strengthens partnership with Korean Air
Korean Air and Delta Air Lines are to cement their previously patchy partnership by expanding codeshares to more than 100 US and Canadian destinations and over 30 cities across Asia.
The airlines were founding partners of the Skyteam alliance in 2000 but their close relationship began to cool when Korean Air reportedly rejected attempts by Delta to form a joint venture.
As a result, Delta is believed to have grown closer to other airlines in the alliance, including Air France KLM.
But this new deal puts its partnership with Korean Air back on track and will see the pair create new codeshare deals in the fourth quarter of 2016, subject to government approvals.
Korean Air will place its code on 156 of Delta’s US and Canadian routes beyond Atlanta, Los Angeles and New York-JFK.
It will also add its code to Delta’s Sao Paulo flights from both Atlanta and New York-JFK.
Korean Air also will place its code on Delta’s new flight from Atlanta to Seoul-Incheon which is due to start on June 3 2017, and will complement the daily service that Korean Air currently offers.
In return, Delta will add its code on Korean Air-operated flights to 32 cities beyond Seoul-Incheon, including Singapore, Bangkok, Saigon, Osaka, Taipei, and other business and leisure destinations throughout South East Asia and Japan.
Delta will also place its code on Korean flights from Houston and San Francisco to Seoul-Incheon.
"Travelers will benefit from the combined network strength of Korean Air and Delta resulting in greater schedule flexibility and increased frequency," promised Walter Cho, Korean Air’s COO.
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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