Air France KLM Group, Delta Air Lines in a Trans-Atlantic Global Joint Venture
The Air France KLM Group and Delta Air Lines announced a new long-term joint venture whereby the partners will jointly operate their trans-Atlantic business by coordinating operations and sharing revenues and costs of their trans-Atlantic route network.
The airlines will cooperate on routes between North America and Africa, the Middle East and India, as well as on flights between Europe and several countries in Latin America. For customers, this joint venture will result in more choices, frequencies, convenient flight schedules, competitive fares and harmonized services on all trans-Atlantic flights operated by the partners.
The joint venture represents approximately 25 percent of total trans-Atlantic capacity with annual revenues estimated at more than $12 billion (approximately 9.3 billion euros, reference year 2008/2009).
Global passengers will benefit from access to a vast network offering over 200 flights and approximately 50,000 seats daily. That network is structured around six main hubs: Amsterdam, Atlanta, Detroit, Minneapolis, New York-JFK and Paris-CDG, together with Cincinnati, Lyon, Memphis and Salt Lake City.
The airline partners will provide their corporate clients with a broad, global offering that best meets their expectations for the most convenient airline system, while providing efficient account management as well as ease of travel for their clients. Going forward, this structure will represent a major strength for the SkyTeam alliance, of which all three airlines are members.
Air France and KLM have been working with their respective American partners for many years. KLM signed a joint venture agreement with Northwest in 1997, while Air France and Delta signed a joint venture agreement in 2007. Following the merger of Delta and Northwest, the next logical business strategy was to establish a single trans-Atlantic joint venture. The agreement signed is the result of that collaboration.