“Ill-judged and short-sighted”: Virgin Atlantic slams London Heathrow terminal shakeup

London Heathrow’s planned reorganisation of airlines operating at each of its four terminals has been met with heavy criticism from one of its largest home carriers. As part of the planned shift, Delta Air Lines would be moved to a different terminal than its joint venture partner Virgin Atlantic, making flight transfers between the two much more of a hassle. Perhaps more importantly for the two, this will have adverse effects on its premium clientele that will no longer be able to access Virgin Atlantic’s flagship Clubhouse lounge.

As part of Virgin Atlantic’s public campaign to fight LHR’s plans, CEO Corneel Koster and founder Sir Richard Branson took to the Sunday Times this weekend to share their thoughts. They described the changes as “ill-judged and short-sighted” and “unacceptable”, adding that the changes single out Virgin Atlantic and Delta Air Lines while having no effect on competitor British Airways which remains in terminal 5.

London Heathrow’s proposed terminal occupancy changes

The consultation process for the terminal changes has been in progress since 2023 according to Head for Points. Ultimately, five airlines are set to move, in a decision that is hoped to more efficiently use the airport’s very limited terminal capacity. China Southern is set to move from terminal 4 to 5 and LATAM from 3 to 2. Delta Air Lines, Finnair and Japan Airlines will all move from terminal 3 to 4.

Terminal 2 is currently home to Star Alliance airlines, terminal 3 is largely oneworld carriers, terminal 4 SkyTeam and terminal 5 is British Airways. Delta is also a SkyTeam airline and it will be moving with partners Finnair and Japan Airlines while also benefitting from onwards connectivity on its other joint venture partners Air France and KLM.

However, they are much smaller players at Heathrow compared to Virgin Atlantic – meaning the decision may still hurt. The occupancy changes at Heathrow are to come into effect in 2028.

Virgin Atlantic is not pleased

In a statement released by CEO Corneel Koster, he described the Heathrow decision as “unacceptable” adding that it creates “unnecessary friction for customers,” weakens the airline’s competitiveness and choice for passengers.

Moving Delta Air Lines means passengers transiting with Virgin Atlantic onto the American airline will now need to take an intra-terminal transfer bus.

“There is no hub airport around the world that would try to force apart co-located, highly integrated joint venture,” he wrote. “Only at Heathrow, clearly. If implemented, Heathrow’s decision will be detrimental to the experience millions of our customers choose.”

He pointed to the advantages of the joint venture, arguing that it has proven beneficial to consumers since coming into effect in 2014. Both airlines have been fully operating out of the terminal together since 2016 (except for a brief period during the pandemic). Crucially, it has provided competition to the American Airlines-British Airways joint venture.

Speaking to The Times, Branson said: “The growth of our joint venture partnership with Delta serves everyone — customers, employees, and Heathrow, too. Squashing this growth puts customer choice at risk and could drive up fares. It’s ill-judged and short-sighted.

This will primarily affect customers travelling between Asia, Africa and the United States.

A spokesperson for Heathrow Airport told the Times that the changes would help ease capacity constraints. “As demand to travel through Heathrow continues to grow and capacity remains constrained, the five airline moves will unlock more capacity across terminals, reduce congestion, improve the flow of passengers through the airport and help keep passenger costs down.”

Virgin Atlantic is weighing options to reverse the decision. Koster says that it will “challenge this outcome in any way we can.”

The Virgin Atlantic-Delta joint venture connects the US with Asia and Africa

According to aviation analytics firm Cirium, Delta Air Lines will operate 64 weekly services into Heathrow this month from seven gateways in the United States. This includes three daily services from Atlanta, up to two daily from New York-JFK and daily flights from Detroit, Minneapolis and Seattle. An additional six weekly flights from Boston and three weekly from Salt Lake City make up the remainder.

Services are timed to ensure all-important connecting traffic can transit between Virgin Atlantic arrivals and departures from Heathrow. Its flights arrive into Heathrow in the morning between 07:00 and 08:00, with a further few later in the morning. Its aircraft return to the United States gradually over the rest of the morning and early-afternoon, timed with Virgin Atlantic’s arrivals as well. The structure is visualised below, ensuring connections to Virgin Atlantic’s Asian and African arrivals and departures.

Most connections will still be feasible, but transit may take more time. Crucially, security will have to be cleared again, increasing connecting times substantially.