ITA Airways Partnership With Virgin Atlantic Officially Ending in November

Updated: September 9, 2025, 8:20pm CDT

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ITA Airways and Virgin Atlantic Splitting up in November
Final Thoughts

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ITA Airways has been in the news a lot lately. Italy’s flag carrier is transitioning out of the SkyTeam alliance and into the Star Alliance.

As such, it’s making moves that affect travelers — and you’ll definitely want to know about the latest one.

ITA and Virgin Atlantic’s existing partnership will end in November. Here’s what this means for you.

ITA Airways and Virgin Atlantic Splitting up in November

Despite having already exited the SkyTeam alliance, ITA Airways’ transition to the Star Alliance remains an incremental process. ITA flyers have been able to enjoy elite benefits, mileage earning, and redeeming capabilities on a range of SkyTeam airlines after the Italian carrier’s official exit from SkyTeam.

However, ITA’s partnership with Delta ended on September 1, 2025, and now we have an end date for its partnership with London-based Virgin Atlantic: November 18, 2025.

This gives ITA Airways Volare members a bit more time to earn and redeem miles on flights operated by Virgin Atlantic and enjoy select benefits, but as of November 18, all of that will end. However, you may request retroactive credit for Virgin Atlantic flights taken by November 17, 2025.

ITA Airways A350 900 Takeoff JFK — Image Credit: Alberto Riva

ITA has also shared on its website that its relationship with Korean Air will end on October 26, 2025. This leaves relationships unchanged with the following airlines, though we’re certain we’ll be learning of more end dates very soon:

Aerolineas Argentinas
Aeromexico
Air Europa
Air France
KLM
Middle East Airlines (MEA)
Saudia

While it severs ties with SkyTeam carriers, ITA is forging new relationships with Star Alliance carriers. In April, it announced a new partnership with the Lufthansa Group. And just last week, it announced a partnership with United Airlines, and flyers can now redeem MileagePlus miles for ITA Airways flights.

We fully expect this process of separating from SkyTeam carriers and getting closer to Star Alliance carriers to continue until ITA becomes a full member of the latter alliance sometime next year.

Hot Tip:

Next year, your existing ITA Airways Volare points will become Miles & More miles when the programs merge. That’s currently expected to happen on January 1, 2026.

Final Thoughts

ITA Airways has announced the end of another partnership with a SkyTeam carrier. On November 18, 2025, all existing benefits, mileage earning, and redemption opportunities on Virgin Atlantic flights will end.

While it’s business as usual with 7 other SkyTeam carriers, we expect to learn about end dates for all of those partnerships as we get closer to the end of the year.