Virgin Australia drops Delta Air Lines and partners with United Airlines to expand travel gateway between Australia and the Americas

Virgin Australia drops Delta Air Lines and partners with United Airlines to expand travel gateway between Australia and the Americas
By James Harrison


Virgin Australia Group has dropped Delta Air Lines and partnered with United Airlines in a collaboration that will give customers access to more destinations and benefits when travelling to cities across the United States, Mexico, the Caribbean and South America.

The partnership will commence in April 2022, and will offer codeshare co-operation and reciprocal loyalty benefits for velocity frequent flyer members to earn, redeem and receive tier benefits when travelling on United’s domestic and international network.

The partnership will also offer more flights to Australia than any other U.S. carrier, with daily flights from San Francisco and Los Angeles to Sydney, and flights from Houston and direct services to Melbourne later in 2022.

Virgin Australia Group CEO, Jayne Hrdlicka, said the partnership is an exciting opportunity for Virgin Australia customers looking to travel overseas coming out of the pandemic.

“The United States is a key market for Virgin Australia, and we know Australians are excited to be able to travel overseas again, so we’ve created hundreds of new ways they can do that through United’s extensive services to and from Australia,” she said.

“We are grateful to have such a strong partner in United. They have proudly been one of Australia’s most loyal and long serving aviation partners and their market strength both to Australia and in the United States brings great value to our guests.

“We look forward to innovating together on behalf of our guests to ensure they have the very best travel experiences to over 90 destinations in the US,” Hrdlicka said.

Hrdlicka also acknowledged the significant partnership with Delta Air Lines and thanked them for their professional relationship with Virgin Australia.

“We’d like to thank Delta Air Lines for their long-standing commitment and relationship with Virgin Australia,” she said.

“As a strategic partner with Virgin Australia for many years, Delta Air Lines has shared a wonderful journey with us, and we appreciate and value the many achievements we made together.

“We will work closely with Delta over the coming months to transition our Velocity partnership, and of course, all bookings will continue to be honoured when Delta customers fly on Virgin Australia.”

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