Hot off the business news pages, but the Air France / KLM Group have just bought 31% of Virgin Atlantic for £220m. The full press release is here. This would value the entire carrier at £660m. Delta Air Lines of course already owns 49% of the carrier, after Singapore Airlines sold their stake back in 2013.
Given Delta and Air France / KLM are all founder members of SkyTeam, I’m guessing that full alliance membership can’t be far off.
This would unquestionably be a good thing and in my view could make the Virgin Flying Club a far more attractive frequent flier programme with a much broader range of earning and redemption opportunities.
There are a lot of ifs and buts, but I can only see this as a very positive deal for UK-based flyers looking for a truly global alliance alternative to British Airways / American Airlines and oneworld.
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