OTHER NEWS - Aug. 19, 1994

Delta-Virgin Atlantic Deal Totters: Four months after Delta Air Lines and Virgin Atlantic Airways announced a partnership that would give Delta access to London’s Heathrow Airport, the two are preparing to abandon linked flights. Delta does not have the right to fly passengers there and had hoped to get around that by buying blocks of seats on Virgin flights and selling them as Delta tickets. The arrangement depended on code sharing, which allows airlines to link flights by computer but which also requires U.S. government approval. The U.S. Department of Transportation has not given it, blaming Britain’s refusal to talk seriously about liberalizing air relations. Virgin Atlantic said the two airlines intend to proceed with parts of the agreement involving merged frequent-flier programs and shared terminal space.