Delta Air Lines

"Delta Air" redirects here. For the defunct German airline, see DBA (airline)

Delta Air Lines, Inc. (NYSE: DAL) is a major airline based in the United States and headquartered in Atlanta. The airline operates an extensive domestic and international network serving all continents except Antarctica. Delta and its subsidiaries operate over 4,000 flights every day. The airline's hub at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport is the world's largest, and since 1999 the world's busiest airport by passenger traffic (88 million passengers per year) and number of landings and take-offs largely due to Delta's presence. Delta is a founding member of the SkyTeam alliance.


On October 29, 2008, Delta merged with Northwest Airlines to form the world's largest airline. The carrier will keep this distinction until rivals United Airlines and Continental Airlines achieve a 'Single Operating Certificate' from the FAA.



History of Delta Air Lines


Formed as Huff Daland Dusters, Incorporated, an aerial crop dusting operation, on May 30, 1924, in Macon, Georgia, the company moved to Monroe, Louisiana, in Ouachita Parish in northeastern Louisiana, in 1925, and began acting as a passenger airline in late 1929. Collett E. Woolman purchased the company on September 13, 1928, and renamed it Delta Air Service, with headquarters in Monroe.In the ensuing decades, Delta grew through the addition of routes and the acquisition of other airlines. It transitioned from propeller planes to jets in the 1970s, and entered international competition to Europe in the 1970s and across the Pacific in the 1980s.


Airline operations


Delta, the mainline component of Delta Air Lines, Inc., – serves primarily high-volume domestic flights and long-haul international services.

Comair a regional component of Delta Air Lines, Inc., – serves primarily domestic short to medium haul flights.

Mesaba Airlines – regional component of Northwest acquired in the merger. (Currently owned by Pinnacle)

Compass Airlines – regional component of Northwest acquired in the merger. (Now owned by Trans States)



Headquarters


Delta's corporate headquarters is housed in a corporate campus on the northern boundary of Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, within the city limits of Atlanta. This location has served as Delta's headquarters since 1941, when the company relocated its corporate offices from Monroe, Louisiana to Atlanta.In addition to hosting Delta's corporate headquarters, Hartsfield-Jackson is also the site of Delta's Technical Operations Center, which is the airline's primary fleet maintenance, repair, and overhaul facility.

Delta maintains a large presence in the Twin Cities, with over 12,000 employees in the region as well as significant corporate support functions housed in the former Northwest headquarters in Eagan, including the headquarters of Delta Connection and the company's information technology divisional offices.

Hub information


Current hubs

Delta operates seven domestic hubs and three international hubs.
Amsterdam Airport Schiphol – One of the two European hubs for Delta, in conjunction with SkyTeam partner KLM.

Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport - Service has been greatly cut since the merger with Northwest Airlines, but still remains a hub.

Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport – Second-largest hub for Delta, also serves as the airline's primary Asian gateway for the East Coast of the United States.

Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport – Largest hub for Delta Air Lines, headquarters site.

John F. Kennedy International Airport – Major international gateway hub for Delta.

Memphis International Airport – Delta hub, was originally dismantled but regained hub status after the merger with Northwest. On March 22, 2011, Delta announced plans to trim its Memphis hub by 25%, mostly eliminating flights to smaller destinations served by its regional affiliate Comair.

Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport – Third largest hub for Delta, former headquarters for Northwest Airlines.

Narita International Airport – Delta's Asian hub.

Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport – One of the two European hubs for Delta. In conjunction with SkyTeam partner Air France.

Salt Lake City International Airport – Western Airlines' Salt Lake City hub operations were continued after Delta purchased Western Airlines in 1987. The Salt Lake City hub is Delta's westernmost hub and fourth largest in the United States.

Although not considered hubs Los Angeles, Washington Reagan, Miami, Orlando, New York LaGuardia, St. Louis, Boston, Chicago O'Hare, Portland (Oregon), and Seattle have large Delta operations.

Former hubs

Chicago O'Hare International Airport – Delta, until the early 1990s, operated a small hub at Chicago. It served thirteen non-stop destinations from its new Delta Flight Center, which opened in the summer of 1984. During this time Delta also maintained a flight attendant base in Chicago.

Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport – Delta at one time operated over 200 flights a day from DFW. At times, it was Delta's third largest hub behind Atlanta and Cincinnati respectively. Delta closed the hub in February 2005.

Frankfurt Airport – Delta's Frankfurt hub was acquired from Pan Am. Delta dismantled the hub in 1997.

Los Angeles International Airport – Delta dismantled its Western Airlines inherited LAX hub in the mid 1990s when it decided to relocate most of those aircraft to the US East Coast. Since that point, it has operated a focus city with a varying portfolio of destinations, of which the hallmark has been flying to Mexico, Florida, and Hawaii. Today, Delta combined maintain an 11% passenger market share with flights to Hawaii, Mexico, Japan, Brazil, Guatemala, and some of Delta's large domestic bases throughout the United States. LAX also remains Delta's sole gateway to Australia.

Orlando International Airport – Delta built up an Orlando hub shortly after the demise of Eastern Air Lines in the early 1990s, and subsequently became the "Official Airline of Walt Disney World". The airport then became the hub for Delta Express and Song, before Delta pulled back mainline presence in the mid-2000s. Orlando then became a hub for Delta Connection carriers, with a focus on regional jet point-to-point operations in the southeast. Comair and Chautauqua Airlines closed their Orlando hub operations in 2008.

Former secondary hubs

Delta has closed two secondary hubs due to changing business needs.

Memphis International Airport – MEM was a mini-hub in conjunction with regional carrier ASA. This operation ended in the mid-1980s when competition became too stiff with Republic Airlines and ASA shifted its aircraft to Delta's Dallas hub. Delta once again regained its hub status here after its merger with Northwest.

Portland International Airport – Portland, Oregon (PDX) was at one time Delta's main Asian gateway. It was closed in 2001. Northwest Airlines resumed the sole Asian flight from Portland to Tokyo in 2004; the flight is still in operation today under the Delta brand. Delta currently uses Detroit, Michigan (DTW) and Seattle, Washington (SEA) as its main Asian gateways as a result of its merger with Northwest.
Personnel

Between its mainline operation and subsidiaries, Delta employs approximately 75,000 people.

Delta's approximately 12,400 pilots are represented by the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA). The union has represented Delta pilots since 1940[citation needed]. Pilot domiciles are located in Atlanta, Minneapolis, Detroit, Seattle, Memphis, Cincinnati, Los Angeles, New York City, and Salt Lake City.

The company's approximately 180 flight dispatchers are represented by the Professional Airline Flight Control Association (PAFCA).

The rest of Delta's workforce, in contrast to other legacy air carriers, is nonunion except former Northwest Airlines employees who are currently represented by various Unions pending the outcome of major union elections between Delta and former NWA employees. On March 18, 2008, Delta announced that it was offering voluntary severance payouts for up to 30,000 employees (though the target headcount reduction is significantly less than that), and that it would cut domestic capacity by 5%.