British airline Virgin Atlantic has been fined $1.05 million by the U.S. Department of Transportation after the carrier operated flights in restricted airspace in Iraq using Delta Air Lines codes, the department announced Tuesday.
Virgin Atlantic has also been ordered to cease and desist from using a U.S. carrier’s codes in restricted airspace.
Air carriers can share codes, wherein one company, in this case Delta, applies its designation to and sells tickets for a flight actually operated by another airline, in this case Virgin Atlantic.
The sharing must be approved by federal regulators.
One of the regulatory stipulations, though, is that foreign air carriers operating under U.