Delta Air Lines and Scandinavian carrier SAS plan to launch a broad codeshare arrangement under which they will jointly sell flights across their combined network.
The airlines on 27 June applied with the US Department of Transportation (DOT) for authority to implement the deal, which will also cover flights operated by Delta’s and SAS’s regional airline partners.
The move comes as SAS prepares on 1 September to become a member alongside Delta of the SkyTeam airline alliance. SAS is one of the founding members of the competing Star Alliance but disclosed in April plans to transition to SkyTeam – a shift associated with an investment by Air France-KLM Group into SAS.
Delta and SAS say in their application with the DOT that they intend to implement their agreement as soon as they received necessary government approvals.
The deal is to cover flights within Europe and within North and Central America. Specifically, SAS plans to carry Delta’s code on flights from Copenhagen, Oslo and Stockholm to dozens of European destinations.
Similarly, Delta intends to carry SAS’s code on flights across several hundred routes, most of them to and from Atlanta, Boston, New York (John F Kennedy International) and Los Angeles.
Both airlines already fly between the USA and Scandinavia. Delta operates from JFK to Copenhagen and Stockholm, while SAS flies to Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, New York (JFK and Newark), Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington (Dulles International), Cirium data shows.
In June, fellow SkyTeam member Virgin Atlantic said it plans to codeshare with SAS.
Story corrected on 29 June to note that SAS is a founding member of Star Alliance, not Oneworld.
