Transatlantic joint ventures: how airlines share routes and revenue

You are standing at the fence in Frankfurt on a morning, and within an hour a United 787, an Air Canada long-haul jet and several Lufthansa long-haul jets from North America land. In Amsterdam it is the same picture with Delta and KLM, in London with American and British Airways. That is no coincidence, and it is not just alliance politics. Behind it stand transatlantic joint ventures: contracts under which competing airlines plan their North Atlantic traffic almost like a single company and share the revenue. This article explains how that works, who cooperates with whom and what you can take away from it as a spotter.

Joint venture: the short answer

A transatlantic joint venture is a contractually regulated cooperation in which two or more airlines plan their flights between North America and Europe together, sell them together and split the revenue according to a fixed key. The partners remain independent companies with their own aircraft, crews and registrations. On the covered market, however, they no longer compete against each other but optimize the network as a whole.

Because such agreements between competitors would normally be prohibited, they need official permission. In the US it is called antitrust immunity, an exemption from the ban on cartels granted by the US Department of Transportation. Without it, there would be no joint venture in this form.

Alliance, codeshare, joint venture: three levels of closeness

The terms are often mixed up but describe very different degrees of cooperation.

Criterion	Alliance	Codeshare	Joint venture
What is shared?	Brand, lounges, frequent flyer benefits, connecting itineraries	Flight numbers on individual flights	Scheduling, prices, sales and revenue of an entire market
Who earns on the ticket?	the airline that flies, plus prorated settlement for connecting passengers	the operator; the selling partner gets a share	the common pot, split by key
Antitrust exemption needed?	usually no	usually no	yes, for the coordinated areas
Competition between the partners	remains	largely remains	largely eliminated on the covered market
Example	Star Alliance, SkyTeam, oneworld	Lufthansa flight number on an Air Canada flight	Delta, Air France-KLM and Virgin Atlantic across the Atlantic

How the three alliances differ is shown in the comparison Star Alliance, oneworld and SkyTeam. What is behind shared flight numbers is explained in the article codeshare flights explained. A joint venture builds on both: the partners are almost always in the same alliance and codeshare intensively, but go one decisive step further.

The core: metal neutrality

The most important principle in a joint venture has a clunky name: metal neutrality. “Metal” is industry jargon for the aircraft. Metal-neutral means that the partners do not care financially whose aircraft a passenger sits in.

Without this rule, every airline would have an incentive to steer passengers onto its own flights – even if the partner’s flight fits better. With a shared revenue pot, that incentive disappears. The partners can then make real network decisions:

• Spreading out departure times: Instead of two airlines departing from New York to Frankfurt at the same time, they fan out the departures across the day. Travelers get a denser schedule as a result.
• Dividing routes: One airline takes over a route on its own, the partner withdraws and deploys its aircraft elsewhere.
• Linking hubs: Feeder flights on both sides of the Atlantic are timed to the partners’ long-haul waves. How these waves arise at the hubs is described in the article hub waves and banking.
• Selling together: Prices, fare conditions and corporate contracts apply to the entire offering, regardless of the operator.

Why antitrust law has a say

When three competitors agree on prices and capacity, that is normally a cartel. With joint ventures, the airlines argue that travelers benefit anyway: more connecting itineraries, coordinated schedules, access to smaller cities on both sides of the Atlantic. The authorities weigh this against the loss of competition.

The role of the US

In the US, the Department of Transportation (DOT) decides on antitrust immunity. For a long time a basic condition was that an open skies agreement exists between the US and the foreign partner’s home country, meaning an air service agreement without restrictions on routes, frequencies and prices. The Netherlands started in 1992 as the first country with such an agreement with the US. In return, Northwest Airlines and KLM received the first exemption for a transatlantic alliance in January 1993. With the agreement between the EU and the US, which entered into force in 2008, the North Atlantic as a whole was opened up. You can find background on this in the article on open skies agreements.

The exemption is not a free pass. The DOT can impose conditions, such as regular reports on the cooperation or a review after a few years. For the joint venture of Delta, Air France-KLM and Virgin Atlantic, the department demanded, among other things, a review every five years when it approved it in 2019.

The role of the EU

On the European side, the European Commission reviews the alliances under European competition law. There is no immunity in the American sense there. Instead, in several cases the Commission has demanded commitments that make it easier for competitors to enter the market – above all giving up takeoff and landing rights on routes where the partners are very strong. Why slots at airports like London Heathrow are so valuable is explained in the article slots at airports.

The three big alliances across the Atlantic

Three blocs have emerged on the North Atlantic, each closely tied to one of the big alliances. The makeup can change when airlines switch alliances or authorities decide anew – the following overview gives the situation as of October 2026 in broad strokes.

Alliance	North America	Europe	Alliance	Important hubs for spotters
Star Alliance joint venture	United, Air Canada	Airlines of the Lufthansa Group	Star Alliance	Frankfurt, Munich, Zurich, Vienna, Newark, Chicago, Toronto
SkyTeam partners’ joint venture	Delta	Air France, KLM, Virgin Atlantic	SkyTeam	Amsterdam, Paris-CDG, London-Heathrow, Atlanta, New York-JFK
Atlantic Joint Business	American Airlines	British Airways, Iberia, Finnair, Aer Lingus	oneworld (Aer Lingus: no alliance)	London-Heathrow, Madrid, Dublin, Philadelphia, New York-JFK

United, Air Canada and the Lufthansa Group

United, Air Canada and Lufthansa were among the founding members of the Star Alliance in 1997 and cooperate across the Atlantic in a joint venture. On the European side, the Lufthansa Group contributes its network carriers. For spotters, this means: at the group’s hubs Frankfurt, Munich, Zurich and Vienna you see United and Air Canada especially often; conversely, the Lufthansa Group flies heavily to the hubs of its North American partners, such as Newark, Chicago O’Hare or Toronto.

An interesting side strand is ITA Airways: after the Lufthansa Group’s entry, the Italian airline left SkyTeam at the end of April 2025 and has been a member of the Star Alliance since April 1, 2026. A change of alliance does not automatically mean admission to a joint venture, though – that requires separate contracts and approvals.

Delta, Air France-KLM and Virgin Atlantic

This alliance has the longest history, as it goes back to the partnership of Northwest Airlines and KLM. From 1993 the two operated their Atlantic traffic together, with Amsterdam Schiphol as the European hub. After Northwest’s merger with Delta and the combination of Air France and KLM, a larger joint enterprise grew out of it.

In parallel, Delta cooperated with Virgin Atlantic in a joint venture of its own; Delta holds 49 percent of the British airline. In 2019 the US Department of Transportation approved merging both alliances into one joint venture, without the then Alitalia. Since 2023, Virgin Atlantic has also been a full member of SkyTeam. Delta and Virgin still do not belong to the Air France-KLM group – they remain independent airlines.

American Airlines and the Atlantic Joint Business

In the Atlantic Joint Business, American Airlines, British Airways, Iberia, Finnair and Aer Lingus coordinate their traffic between North America and Europe. Four of the five partners are in oneworld, three belong to the International Airlines Group. Aer Lingus is a special case: the airline belongs to IAG and is part of the joint venture, but has been in no alliance since 2007.

For spotters, London Heathrow is the focal point of this alliance above all. American and British Airways meet there in large numbers. On the American side, Philadelphia is American’s most important transatlantic node.

Joint ventures exist beyond the Atlantic too

The model has spread from the North Atlantic to other markets. American cooperates in joint enterprises with Japan Airlines in Pacific traffic and with Qantas on routes to Australia and New Zealand, Delta with Aeroméxico since 2017 on flights between Mexico and the US. Air Canada and Air China concluded the first joint venture between a North American and a Chinese airline in 2018. The North Atlantic remains the market, though, where the model is most developed.

Pros and cons for travelers and competition

Whether joint ventures benefit or harm the market has been disputed for decades. The arguments of both sides:

In approval proceedings, competitors have repeatedly demanded conditions, such as better access to scarce takeoff and landing rights at airports like Heathrow or Schiphol. The authorities have not always followed such demands. At the same time, the North Atlantic has changed: with narrowbody jets like the A321LR and the A321XLR, airlines can now also serve routes with less demand directly, without a widebody aircraft and without a detour via a hub.

What joint ventures mean for spotters

For you at the fence, the dry contract topic has tangible consequences.

In Frankfurt, the Zeppelinheim viewing platform is a good place to see the arrivals of United, Air Canada and Lufthansa in the morning. In Amsterdam, the Polderbaan spotter spot puts Delta and KLM in front of your lens, and in London, Myrtle Avenue gives you the approaches of American, British Airways, Delta and Virgin Atlantic into Heathrow.

What to keep in mind

• Do not count codeshare numbers twice. A sighting is one aircraft with one registration, no matter how many flight numbers the flight was sold under.
• Keep alliance and joint venture apart. Not every alliance airline is in the joint venture, and Aer Lingus shows that it can also work the other way around.
• A group is not the same as an alliance. Air France-KLM or IAG are real groups with ownership. A joint venture is a contract between independent companies. How the hub networks behind them work is explained in the article hub-and-spoke and point-to-point.
• Check the current status. Members, routes and approvals change. What applies today can look different in the next schedule period.

Conclusion

Transatlantic joint ventures are the closest form of cooperation between airlines that do not merge. The partners plan the North Atlantic together, share the revenue and thereby make themselves metal-neutral. That is only possible with open skies and an antitrust exemption. Since the start of Northwest and KLM in 1993, three big blocs have formed, closely tied to the Star Alliance, SkyTeam and oneworld. At the fence you recognize them by which North American jets land at which European hub.