Delta Air Lines

Benedict Gombocz

Overview Also known as Delta Air Lines, Inc. and operates as

Delta Air Lines. Major United States airline, headquartered in Atlanta,

Georgia. Operates an extensive domestic and international

network that serves all continents (excluding Antarctica).

Delta Air Lines and its subsidiary airlines operate more than 5,000 flights per day; have roughly 80,000 employees.

Its main hub at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport is the world’s busiest airport in terms of passenger traffic (more than 91 million passengers each year) and number of arrivals and departures; Hartsfield-Jackson is additionally the home of Delta TechOps, Delta’s Technical Operations Center.

Sixth-oldest operating airline by date of foundation, and oldest airline still operating in the United States.

One of the four founding members of the SkyTeam airline alliance; the other three are Korean Air, Air France, and Aeroméxico.

Its loyalty program is SkyMiles. Was the world’s biggest airline with respect to fleet size

and scheduled passenger traffic in 2011 and 2012, respectively; was also the second-biggest airline with respect to revenue passenger-kilometers flown in 2012.

Its regional services are served by Delta Connection.

History Founded as Huff Daland Dusters, Inc., an aerial crop

dusting operation, on May 30, 1924 in Macon, Georgia. Created with a Huff-Daland Duster, the first real crop

duster, the plane was deployed to combat the boll weevil in 1925; it was owned by Delta Air Corporation (it’s now on display in the Southern Museum of Flight).

Also in 1925, the company moved to Monroe, Louisiana. On September 13, 1928, Collett E. Woolman, one of the

initial directors, bought the company, renaming it Delta Air Service.

Late in 1929, the company began carrying passengers; the single passenger sat in a chair put in the bin, where the pesticide was normally held.

The first routes were between Southern states. Delta expanded with the addition of routes and the

purchase of other airlines; replaced propeller planes with jets in the 1960s and entered global contest to Europe in the 1970s and across the Pacific in the 1980s.

The Delta Air Lines logo, initially disclosed in 1959, is suggestive of the swept-wing design of the DC-8 aircraft.

Often nicknamed the “widget” logo, the current vision is made of two 3D triangles.

Predecessors The current Delta Air Lines is the result of numerous

airline mergers over a period of over 80 years. The October 29, 2008 merger with Northwest Airlines

marked the latest merger, forming the world’s biggest airline at that time.

Following the merger’s approval, Northwest continued to operate as an entirely owned subsidiary of Delta until December 31, 2009 when the operating certificates of both carriers were merged (Delta’s certificate was kept).

Delta finished the incorporation with Northwest on January 31, 2010 when their reservation systems and websites were merged; the Northwest Airlines name and brand formally fell into disuse.

Northwest Airbus A320, Delta Connection CRJ-200

Headquarters and offices Delta’s business headquarters is housed in a business

campus on the northern edge of Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, within Atlanta’s city limits.

This site has served as Delta’s headquarters since 1941, when the company moved its headquarters to Atlanta via Monroe, Louisiana.

Apart from hosting Delta’s business headquarters, Hartsfield-Jackson is also the home base of Delta TechOps, Delta’s Technical Operations Center, the airline’s main maintenance, repair, and overhaul arm and the biggest full-service airline MRO in North America; specializes in engines, modules, airframe, and line maintenance.

Delta also retains a significant presence in the Twin Cities, where it has more than 12,000 employees and large business support functions in the Minneapolis area, like the company’s information technology divisional offices.

Branding “Upward & Onward”, Delta’s current livery, uses four

colors. It features a “widget” (triangle) on every aircraft’s

vertical stabilizer in reference to Delta’s origins as an airline in the Mississippi Delta.

The former livery, “Colors in Motion”, used eight colors. In 2007, after surviving bankruptcy, Delta introduced its

current livery. The change from the former livery to the current livery

removed one day from every aircraft’s painting cycle, allowing Delta to save money.

It took four years for Delta to repaint all of its aircraft, such as aircraft inherited from Northwest Airlines, into the current design.

In 1959, the triangle logo, internally known as “the Widget”, was introduced.

While it was not part of the “Colors in Motion” livery, the triangle logo returned with the current livery.

List of Delta hubs Amsterdam Airport Schiphol* Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport* Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport John F. Kennedy International Airport (New York City) LaGuardia Airport (New York City) Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport* Narita International Airport* (Tokyo) Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport Salt Lake City International Airport

*Northwest hub prior to Northwest-Delta merger

Delta aircraft, Amsterdam Airport Schiphol

Delta aircraft, Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport

Delta aircraft, LaGuardia Airport

Delta aircraft, Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport

Delta 767, Narita International Airport

Former Delta hubs Boston Logan International Airport Chicago O’Hare International Airport Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport Frankfurt Airport Los Angeles International Airport Memphis International Airport Orlando International Airport

Former secondary Delta hubs Memphis International Airport Portland International Airport (Oregon)

Codeshare agreements Besides its SkyTeam partners, Delta Air Lines has codeshare agreements with

the following airlines as of September 2011: Alaska Airlines American Eagle Garuda Indonesia Gol Transportes Aéreos Hawaiian Airlines Olympic Air Virgin Atlantic Virgin Australia WestJet

Delta Connection CRJ-200, Newark Liberty International Airport

Delta 767-400 in pink livery

Delta Connection CRJ-700, Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport

The End YouTube links:

Delta Air Lines commercial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fgt6uDke5R0

Delta Air Lines in-flight safety video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgpzUo_kbFY