Airlines team up on Los Angeles flights

Delta Air Lines and Air France have signed a deal that will see the two carriers operate a new direct route between Heathrow Airport and Los Angeles next year.

The new daily flights will begin on March 30th, with Delta customers able to fly with Air France between the two locations as a result of a codeshare agreement.

In addition, passengers on these services will be able to collect reciprocal frequent flier miles on either of the two airlines' flights.

The flights will take off from Heathrow at 17:00 BST every evening, arriving in Los Angeles at 20:15 local time. The return service, meanwhile, departs at 20:25 local time and lands in London at 14:40 BST.

"Access to London's Heathrow Airport has long been in the top of Delta's list of priorities and we are pleased to offer our customers access to the world's largest transatlantic market from three of our US gateways beginning in 2008," commented Glen Hauenstein of Delta.

Delta also announced this week that passengers flying in its Elite cabin class within the USA will be able to take advantage of a dedicated lane at every airport gate that gives them priority boarding privileges at any time.

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