Delta Air Lines is a major US airline headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. It operates an extensive domestic and international network serving all continents except Antarctica. Delta's main hub is Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, which is the world's busiest airport. Delta is a founding member of the SkyTeam airline alliance and has a loyalty program called SkyMiles.

1. Delta Air Lines
Benedict Gombocz

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. Northwest Airbus A320, Delta Connection CRJ-200

6. 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, HartsfieldJackson 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 fullservice 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.

7. 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.

8. 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

9. Delta aircraft, Amsterdam Airport Schiphol

10. Delta aircraft, Detroit Metropolitan Wayne
County Airport

11. Delta aircraft, LaGuardia Airport

12. Delta aircraft, Minneapolis-Saint Paul
International Airport

13. Delta 767, Narita International Airport

14. 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

15. Former secondary Delta hubs

Memphis International Airport

Portland International Airport (Oregon)

16. 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

17. Delta Connection CRJ-200, Newark Liberty
International Airport

18. Delta 767-400 in pink livery

19. Delta Connection CRJ-700, MinneapolisSaint Paul International Airport

20. 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