The head of one of the world’s largest airlines says the sliding Australian dollar should lead to an influx of US tourists down under.

Delta Airlines president Edward Bastian said the company was heavily promoting Australia as a destination as a result of the fall in the currency.

“I think we will be bringing many many US tourists to Australia because of the fact that the US dollar is so strong,” he told a business lunch in Sydney.

“You are going to see a lot of US travellers coming to spend their currency.”

Mr Bastian said the fall of the Australian dollar, which has dropped from more than 90 US cents to 76 US cents in the past year, had reduced the value of bookings from Australia but that had been offset by increased passenger numbers from North America.

“It certainly has reduced the value of some of our Australian revenues but it’s also improved the popularity from a US travel base to come over, not just to Sydney but all throughout this big country.”

Delta flies between Sydney and Los Angeles as part of a partnership with Virgin Australia.

The partnership has been in place since 2011 and the airlines are currently lobbying the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to allow them to extend the arrangement for another 10 years.

Virgin chief executive John Borghetti said the two airlines had a market share between Australia and the US of 25 per cent, which is less than half that of Qantas.

He said they would struggle to compete on the route without the tie-up.

“Five years ago we were losing a lot of money on America and we were operating nowhere near as competitive schedule as we do today,” he said.

“The only thing that has allowed us to do that is this partnership.”