More nonstops from LAX to London due next year
Air France, in a move that could intensify competition and lower fares for transatlantic travel, said Wednesday that it would begin nonstop service between Los Angeles International Airport and London’s Heathrow Airport next August.
The new service would be the latest in a growing list of airlines hoping to tap a lucrative route that has long been dominated by British Airways, which operates six daily flights between LAX and Heathrow. In August, an all-business class airline, Maxjet, began nonstop service from LAX and London’s Stansted Airport.
With the addition of Air France, Los Angeles passengers planning a trip to London will have a choice of seven airlines and 11 daily departures, making the route one of the busiest at the airport’s international terminal. In addition to British Airways, Air New Zealand and London-based Virgin Atlantic, U.S. carriers American Airlines and United Airlines operate daily service to London’s Heathrow.
The new service will be part of a joint venture between Air France-KLM and Delta Air Lines that was announced Wednesday. The pact will allow the airlines to offer flights in each other’s markets in Europe and the United States. Delta passengers also will be able to book certain Air France flights through Delta and vice versa.
Under the venture, Delta, the third-biggest U.S. carrier, will be able to fly to Heathrow, a heavily congested airport that had been restricted to two U.S. carriers: American and United.
With a new “open skies” agreement between the two countries, Delta plans to operate two daily flights to Heathrow from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport and a daily service to Heathrow from Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.
Delta said it also would operate new nonstop flights from JFK to Paris’ Orly Airport and from Salt Lake City to Paris’ Charles de Gaulle International Airport. For its part, Air France plans to start a nonstop service from LAX to Tahiti in 2010 as the venture grows to include other destinations in Europe, the Mediterranean and North America.
The venture marks what the two airlines called an “unprecedented move to offer our customers a greater choice of routes and schedules.”
