History of Delta Air Lines
[9] Passenger service ceased in October 1930 when the air mail contract for the route Delta had pioneered was awarded to another airline.
The company began doing business as Delta Air Lines, carrying mail from Fort Worth to Charleston, South Carolina.
[20] Delta's origins can be traced to an agricultural and aviation effort that came together in the early 1920s to find a solution to the boll weevil infestation that was destroying cotton crops.
Entomologist B. R. Coad led a team of researchers at the U.S. Department of Agriculture's field laboratory in Tallulah, Louisiana, and with loaned Army pilots and aircraft developed improvements that determined "dusting" of insecticide powder from the air would be the most effective form of treatment.
[21] Working with Coad, an aircraft manufacturing company (Huff-Daland Aero Corporation) built the world's first airplane designed for crop-dusting and formed a subsidiary, Huff Daland Dusters Inc., to market and operate that new service.
C.E.Woolman left his position with Louisiana State University's Agricultural Extension Dept and in the off-season traveled with the company to Peru, where they helped to establish crop-dusting and passenger services.
With this experience, Woolman returned to the United States and in 1928, he led a group of local investors to acquire Huff Daland Dusters assets.
[9] By June 1930, Delta's route had expanded eastward to Atlanta, the fastest-growing city in the South, and westward to Fort Worth, Texas.
[24] This service was terminated in October 1930 after the "Spoils Conference", when the Post Office awarded the route to an American Airlines predecessor.
That December it scheduled ten departures a day at Atlanta: three to Ft Worth, one to Birmingham and two each to Cincinnati, Charleston and Savannah.
[31] The network expanded to Washington DC and New York in 1956; like Braniff, Delta initially flew only to Newark, but between 1957 and 1958 both airlines added flights to Idlewild.
"[35] The airplane remained in the Delta fleet until 2006, and was repainted in a commemorative paint scheme and toured the country to celebrate the airline's 75th anniversary in 2004.
Delta initially explored a joint divvying-up of Pan Am's assets with United Airlines where Delta would take over the New York-based European operations and United would take over the Miami-based Latin American operations, but the two carriers reached a major disagreement over which would assume the Pan Am Miami-London route.
[46] In 1998, Delta and United Airlines introduced a marketing partnership that included a reciprocal redemption agreement between SkyMiles and Mileage Plus programs and shared lounges.
Delta and United attempted to introduce an even closer codeshare agreement, but this was deal was effectively killed by ALPA.
Non-union workers' salaries were to be reduced by a minimum of 9% across the board, with a 15% reduction for executive officers and a 25% pay cut for CEO Gerald Grinstein.
[55] On February 24, 2006, Delta, along with Continental Airlines and FedEx Express, saw future operations to Venezuela severely affected by President Hugo Chávez's decision to restrict flights coming into that South American country from the United States.
[58] Delta also installed an improved in-flight entertainment system on internationally configured aircraft, featuring a personal selection of movies.
On May 10, 2007, Delta began a partnership with US Helicopter, who provides service from John F. Kennedy International Airport to several helipads in downtown Manhattan.
Representative Jim Oberstar of Minnesota, who also serves as chair of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, made clear his opposition to the merger, and he fought it in Washington[citation needed].
The company also stated on 14 April 2008 that it agreed with its pilot union to extend the existing collective bargaining agreement through the end of 2012.
[101][102][103][104] In September 2017, Delta flight 431 from San Juan to New York's JFK became famous for fleeing Category 5 Hurricane Irma just before it made landfall on the island of Puerto Rico.
The department responded with a number of conditions, including taking WestJet's ULCC subsidiary Swoop out of the joint venture and the divesting of 16 takeoff and landing slots at New York's LaGuardia Airport.
However, on 23 July 2021, WestJet's CEO Ed Sims announced that the two airlines were still going ahead with a new and revised joint venture application.
Airport travel rose greater than initially projected by Delta, raking in 20% more daily net cash sales than expected.
The company reported it would acquire 29 used Boeing 737s and leasing seven used Airbus SE A350s, expected to be delivered next year, in anticipation of a growing market.
Predecessor carriers include: For much of the airline's early history, each aircraft type in the fleet wore a distinct paint scheme, with orange appearing as a common accent color.
[123] From the late 1940s onward, aircraft were generally painted with a white upper fuselage and red-and-blue cheatlines, with details varying among fleet types.
Designed by Robert Bragg of advertising agency Burke Dowling Adams, the logo and livery were retained largely unchanged for the next 35 years.
Designed by Lippincott the Widget was split vertically into dark and bright red sides, giving it a three-dimensional appearance.
