Delta Air Lines (DL, Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson) and Alaska Airlines (AS, Seattle Tacoma International) have both confirmed that effective May 1, 2017, they will discontinue their longstanding commercial partnership signed back in 2008. The announcement follows Alaska Airlines' recent closure of its takeover of Virgin America (San Francisco).
Aside from frequent-flyer cooperation, the partnership also entails codesharing wherein Delta currently places its "DL" code on select Alaska Airlines' flights out of Portland International and Seattle Tacoma International while Alaska Airlines places its "AS" code on select Delta flights out of the latter's Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson and Minneapolis St. Paul International hubs.
However, the relationship has become fraught over the past few years following Delta's decision to establish an own hub in Seattle, which is also Alaska Airlines' main hub.
As a consequence, Alaska Airlines said in an SEC filing that the relevance of and revenue from Delta's frequent flyer programme and codeshare had been decreasing from its peak of USD235 million in 2013, to USD65 million in 2016. It, therefore, expects to incur a loss of between USD5-10 million as a result of lost codeshare revenue.
An interline agreement between the two carriers will remain in place from May 1, 2017, onwards.
