Delta Air Lines

Foundation until 1991

The origins of the airline date back to 1924, when aircraft manufacturer Huff-Daland Aero Company established a subsidiary called Huff Daland Dusters in Macon, Georgia, which used agricultural aircraft for pest control. The Huff Daland Dusters company moved its headquarters to Monroe, Louisiana, in 1925 and opened a branch in Peru in 1927, with entomologist Collett E. Woolman and the pilot Harold Harris. The Peruvian branch gave birth to Peruvian Airways, managed by Harold Harris, on September 4, 1928, which later became Pan American-Grace Airways. At the same time, Collett E. Woolman returned to the United States and in November 1928, with the help of three private investors, acquired the parent company Huff Daland Dusters in Monroe, which was up for sale. After the takeover on December 3, 1928, the company was named Delta Air Service - a reverence to the Mississippi Delta. Collett E. Woolman took charge of the new company, which initially remained active only in the agricultural sector and began passenger service on June 17, 1929, with three Travel Air S-6000Bs on the route from Dallas, Texas, to Jackson, Mississippi, via Shreveport and Monroe, both in Louisiana. The company moved to its present headquarters in Atlanta, the capital of Georgia, in 1941 and changed its name to Delta Air Lines in 1945.

In 1953, the airline Chicago and Southern Air Lines was taken over and the joint route network was marketed as Delta C&S for two years. In 1959, the Douglas DC-8, the first jet-powered aircraft, was added to the fleet. On August 1, 1972, Delta acquired Northeast Airlines to strengthen its position in the northeastern United States. The acquisition gave Delta its first Boeing 727-200 aircraft.

In 1987, Delta was able to take over Western Airlines with its aviation hubs in Salt Lake City and Los Angeles, thus becoming the fourth largest airline in the USA and the fifth largest in the world. Shortly before the insolvency of Pan American World Airways in 1991, its transatlantic route network, including part of the fleet and the Pan Am terminal at John F. Kennedy International Airport, was acquired for 1.3 billion US dollars.

Since 2000

Together with American Airlines, United Airlines, US Airways, Continental Airlines and Boeing, Delta Air Lines filed a statement of claim against the FBI and CIA as a result of the attacks of 11 September 2001. The aim was to clarify whether the airline industry was complicit in the terrorist attacks and/or whether its responses were correct and appropriate.

The company cut more than 20,000 jobs between 2001 and 2004, and in the spring of 2004 management put another 7,000 jobs up for disposal. Starting in the fall of 2004, Delta attempted to avert the threat of insolvency with a tough reorganization plan that called for savings of six billion U.S. dollars by 2006. In view of the high fuel prices and in relation to the annual turnover of around fifteen billion US dollars, the plan was described from the outset in press reports as pure wastepaper. In the summer of 2005, Delta had to sell its subsidiary Atlantic Southeast Airlines to the regional carrier SkyWest Airlines for 425 million US dollars in order to pay off debts of 100 million US dollars with the proceeds.

In the second quarter of 2005, Delta was able to reduce losses to US$ 388 million - after almost US$ 2 billion in the previous year. On September 14, 2005, Delta filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, which is possible under U.S. law while operations continue. By its own account, the company had accumulated a total debt mountain of 20 billion dollars.

The company was able to fend off a hostile takeover by rival company US Airways during the 2006/2007 turn of the year. On 27 April 2007, Delta Air Lines announced that it would leave creditor protection on 30 April. As of May 3, 2007, new shares were issued on the New York Stock Exchange and most of them were distributed to creditors. The company's old shares became worthless at that time.

On 14 April 2008, Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines announced their intention to merge to form what is currently the world's largest airline. The joint company will be managed under the name Delta by the former Delta CEO Richard Anderson. The US antitrust authorities approved the merger on October 29, 2008, so that the merger was completed with effect from that date.

At the beginning of 2012, Delta Air Lines swapped slots with US Airways. Delta Air Lines gave up slots at Washington National Airport to US Airways and received slots at New York LaGuardia from US Airways in return. In 2012, it was also announced that Delta intends to significantly reduce the number of its regional aircraft with fewer than 50 seats. For this reason, the flight operations of the regional subsidiary Comair will also be discontinued. The remaining Comair aircraft will be integrated into the mainline Delta Air Lines. Furthermore, 88 Boeing 717s will be leased from Southwest Airlines to replace the 50-seaters, which will also be flown mainline.

On 28 April 2016, Delta Air Lines announced a firm order for 75 Airbus A220-100s, it also secured options for 50 more of the same type. Delta will thus become the largest operator of the A220s, which are to replace the 80 aging Boeing 717s. In December 2016, on the other hand, all Boeing 787s ordered by Northwest Airlines in 2005 were cancelled.

In the second quarter of 2020, Delta wrote a loss of $5.7 billion due to the global Corona pandemic.

Shareholdings

Delta owns 49% of Virgin Atlantic Airways, 4.1% of Aeroméxico, 3.6% of China Eastern and 2.9% of Gol Linhas Aéreas. According to press reports, Delta is looking to increase its stake in Gol to 10% once new shares are issued. This deal has already been approved by the relevant antitrust authorities. In November 2015, Delta announced that it would increase its stake in Aeroméxico to 49 %.

Censorship

Delta had a same-sex love scene and the word "lesbian" from the movie Booksmart edited out for the in-flight screening, as well as references to gays in the biographical film Rocketman about Elton John. At the same time, Delta says it sponsors gay pride parades worldwide. "Apparently Pride ends at 30,000 feet," commented the Guardian.

Delta Air Lines serves a large number of European destinations from various cities in the USA. Mainly from Atlanta and New York/JFK, hubs in Detroit, Minneapolis and Amsterdam were taken over from Northwest Airlines.

Delta Air Lines serves four cities in German-speaking countries on eight routes:

• from Atlanta 1 x daily to Frankfurt and Zurich (Boeing 767-300) as well as 1 x daily to Munich and Stuttgart (Boeing 767-400)
• from Detroit once daily to Frankfurt and Munich (Boeing 767-300)
• from New York-JFK once daily Frankfurt (Boeing 767-300) and Zurich (Boeing 767-400).

Former flights to Germany:

• Berlin: 1991 - 1995 Atlanta - Hamburg - Berlin/TXL (Boeing 767-300), 1991 - 1997 New York/JFK - Berlin/TXL (Airbus A310/Boeing 767-300; route taken over by Pan Am, occasionally with tag-on to Warsaw), 2005 - 2011 New York/JFK - Berlin/TXL (Boeing 767-300), 2017 - 2019 New York/JFK - Berlin/TXL (Boeing 767-300/-400; seasonal service)
• Dusseldorf: 2006 - 2020 Atlanta - Dusseldorf (Boeing 767-300/-400)
• Frankfurt: until 1997 Delta Air Lines operated a hub in Frankfurt, which was taken over by Pan Am in 1991 together with the transatlantic routes from New York. There were flights to Athens, Bombay (some even with Boeing 727s), Budapest, Cincinnati, Dallas, Delhi, Istanbul, Los Angeles, Miami, Moscow, Orlando, Prague, Vienna-Bucharest, Warsaw and Washington DC. The short- and medium-haul routes were flown with Airbus A310 and Boeing 727, at times also with Boeing 767-200, the long-haul routes were flown with Airbus A310, Boeing 767-300, Lockheed L-1011 and McDonnell Douglas MD-11. Some of these destinations were still offered after the closure of the hub in 1997.
• Hamburg: 1989 - 1991 Atlanta - London/Gatwick - Hamburg (Lockheed L-1011), 1991 - 1995 Atlanta - Hamburg - Berlin/TXL (Boeing 767-300), 1991 - 1995 New York/JFK - Hamburg (Airbus A310/Boeing 767-300; route taken over by Pan Am, at times in triangle with or via Amsterdam or via Copenhagen), 1998 - 2000 Atlanta - Hamburg (Boeing 767-300, at times Lockheed L-1011)
• Stuttgart: 1998 - 2000 New York/JFK - Stuttgart (Boeing 767-300)