Delta Air Lines today announced it will make a financial investment in three of its partner airlines to help the trio emerge from the constraints of the pandemic.
The total investment amounts to $1.2 billion, with a 20 percent equity stake in Aeromexico, 10 percent stake in LATAM, and maintaining a 49 percent equity partnership in Virgin Atlantic.
Delta CEO Ed Bastian says it doesn't just help the three carriers, but helps Delta as well.
"These strategic investments in our partners will transform our ability to improve travel for our customers, enabling us to deliver a seamless travel experience alongside offering our customers an unrivalled network between North American and premier markets worldwide," Delta CEO Ed Bastian said in a statement. "The work each of our partners has done to strengthen their businesses for the future makes these partnerships even more valuable and creates a new era of international travel to benefit our customers, our employees and our investors as global travel rebounds in 2022 and beyond."
Delta said that, prior to the pandemic, it had record international growth attributed to a combination of organic growth and its global partner network.
The onset of the pandemic in March of 2020 interrupted international travel to and from the United States until travel bans and restrictions were lifted on November 8, 2021. Delta quickly responded by resuming 12 of its international routes.
Delta's Joint Cooperation Agreement with Aeromexico has been in place since 2017 and includes more than 40 routes.
The trans-American Joint Venture Agreement with LATAM provides route networks between North and South America.
And the joint venture with Virgin Atlantic, now eight years old,
Virgin Atlantic: Delta's joint venture with Virgin Atlantic has, since 2013 with routes between the U.S. and U.K.
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