Delta Air Lines today said it has signed an agreement with SkyTeam partner Korean Airlines to sell all Korean services to corporate clients in the North American market. Delta said the arrangement is the first of its kind between U.S. and Asian carriers and conceptually is similar to Northwest Airlines' sales representation of partner KLM Royal Dutch Airlines in the North American market.
"Asia always has been an area where we have not had a lot of strength," said Steve Smith, Delta managing director of corporate sales. "Korean's network through Seoul to beyond points in Asia provides more opportunities for U.S. companies and Korean companies with operations in the United States."
Under terms of the deal, Delta corporate sales personnel will sell Korean services to such markets as China and other intra-Asian routes not previously covered by Delta-Korean codesharing. The two carriers secured antitrust immunity for U.S. operations two years ago
(BTN, Aug. 12, 2002). Korean does not plan to reduce its U.S. headcount as a result of the agreement.
Smith also noted that Korean plans to use a corporate contract decision data aggregation and decision support system furnished by the Prism Group and already in place at Delta. "This will help us target opportunities with corporations that we may not have found before," he said.
"The synergies between Delta's corporate presence and reputation and Korean's capacity and route structure via Seoul-Incheon Airport to all of Asia will result, we believe, in an increase in marketshare and revenue for both Korean Air and Delta Air Lines," said K.C. Oh, Korean Air general manager and director of passenger marketing for the Americas. "We look forward to being an integral part of Delta's and SkyTeam's growth in the transpacific corporate market and to working even more closely with our Delta partner in this new joint sales program."
Unlike the Northwest-KLM arrangement, the Delta-Korean deal is not a joint venture and does not include travel agency or consolidator sales.