Skipness, so you think Delta have abandoned a route with good loads and a clientele and history going back over 30 years and let it go to an inferior product. The average passenger down the back may see it that way but those using and paying for the more expensive seats know that the Delta product on the route has been struggling and the equipment was, to be polite, elderly. The 333 is modern, well equipped and the Virgin product, though I would be the first to admit varies route by route and is much more ordinary than it was 20 to 30 years ago, is still of a good standard on the North Atlantic non holiday fleet.
This isn't an abandonment or just passing to an airline in an alliance, this is part of the restructuring of Virgin on the one hand and Delta's presence on the Atlantic. There is nothing to stop Delta handing their slots on routes from any where in the EU to Virgin.
Willie Walsh in 2012 stated that Virgin would only last five years at most and Delta would not allow the Virgin brand to continue and dilute the Delta brand.
It seems to me that the change on the Atlanta route is indicative of a thinking in Atlanta HQ which is determined to use the assets of the company to the best effect. The flight numbers on Virgin routes to the US are in the 4xxx series in the Delta flight list which indicate the flights are operated by a company partly or wholly owned by Delta. Other code shares by alliance or code share partners are in the range 7xxx, 8xxx or 9xxx.
I would not put further VS/DL changes out of court and, in the light of a conversation I had with the CEO of Comair at a time when DL owned just 20% of the stock and was flying under its own colours with its own and DL Connection flight numbers on the same flights, I would suggest DL will have laid down some pretty stringent ground rules to keep its customers happy.
In the long term it may well be that Virgin will become wholly owned or branded as a Delta product. This cannot happen under current EU rules but airlines, including BA continue to push hard for the rules to be changed and if the UK leaves the EU...........