US DoT Ruling on DELTA - Virgin Blue Group tie-up

[Jim Liu]

The US Department of Transportation on 01SEP09 has filed its decision on the proposal of Trans-Pacific joint-venture between DELTA and Virgin Blue Group.

The tie-up in principal is approved, however for the time being, DELTA can only place its "DL" code on Virgin Blue's service as the latter has passed the code-share safety audits by the US FAA.

The audits for DELTA - V Australia, DELTA - Pacific Blue, DELTA - Pacific Blue New Zealand, has not yet conducted, so DELTA can not start codesharing on these carriers although they are part of the Virgin Blue Airlines Group.

For the link of the PDF document ruling: http://www.regulations.gov/search/Re...-OST-2009-0156 (click on number 6)