This Wednesday at Roissy, Air France and Delta Air Lines will sign a joint venture agreement to share revenues and costs on certain trans-Atlantic routes. The agreement will expand the two airlines’ existing immunized partnership that has delivered new routes and choices to customers on both sides of the Atlantic since its inception in the late 1990s.

The joint venture will be implemented in April 2008. It will first apply to all trans-Atlantic flights between the Air France and Delta hubs, as well as all flights operated by either carrier between London-Heathrow and the U.S. These flights will be sold by the non operating carrier on a codeshare basis.

Starting in 2010, numerous flights to all destinations between Europe, the Mediterranean and North America will be part of the joint venture.

The revenues encompassed by the first phase of this joint venture is estimated at approximately US$1.5 billion per year, and more than US$8 billion per year for the second phase.

“This agreement marks an unprecedented move to offer our customers a greater choice of routes and schedules,” announced Jean-Cyril Spinetta, Chairman and CEO of the Air France KLM Group, and Richard Anderson, Chief Executive Officer of Delta Air Lines. “Together, we will be able to provide our customers with an outstanding transatlantic service, both in terms of routes, capacity, frequencies and quality of service.”

Mr. Spinetta and Mr. Anderson will provide more details on the agreement during a press conference in Roissy at 10:30 a.m. CEST (4:30 a.m. EST) today. The press conference will webcast live at airfrance.com/corporate and delta.com. The event will be recorded and made available online at the same URL about one hour after the press conference.
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