Delta Air Lines Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description
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Delta Air Lines is an airline based in Atlanta, Georgia, operating a large domestic network within the USA, as well as an international network that spans Europe, Asia, and Latin America. In addition to its main hub at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Delta operates hubs at Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky International Airport and Salt Lake City International Airport. Delta currently operates a hub at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, although it is planned to be dehubbed in 2005 in effort to avoid bankruptcy. John F. Kennedy International Airport is one of Delta's main airports for international flights, but is not officially considered a hub. It is the largest carrier in the SkyTeam alliance and uses the IATA designator code DL.
Delta operates several airline brands. The mainline Delta brand serves long-haul, high-volume flights and most international services. Delta Connection feeds the airline's hubs with connecting traffic and is operated by Delta's wholly-owned subsidiaries Comair and Atlantic Southeast Airlines, as well as Atlantic Coast Airlines in the northeast and mid-Atlantic states, Chautauqua Airlines in Florida, and SkyWest Airlines in the mountain states. Under a code share agreement, American Eagle also operates Delta Connection service out of Los Angeles. Short-haul, non-reserved services between major Northeastern U.S. cities are operated under the Delta Shuttle brand. Delta also owns Song, a no-frills, low-fare brand connecting northeastern cities with Florida, Puerto Rico, and Las Vegas.
Delta Air Lines' mainline division currently employs more than 60,000 people, and serves 138 cities in 34 countries, with an additional two cities in two countries slated for the future. Many more cities are served by the Delta Connection carriers, and by Delta's codeshare partners, including SNCF French Rail to rail stations in France.
Delta also awards the annual Delta Prize for Global Understanding in conjunction with the University of Georgia.
The company has its roots in Huff Daland Dusters, which was founded in 1924 in Macon, Georgia but moved to Monroe, Louisiana the following year. In 1928, Huff Daland Dusters was purchased and renamed 'Delta Air Services', where its route connected Dallas, Texas to Jackson, Mississippi, via Shreveport, Louisiana and Monroe. In 1941, Delta moved its headquarters from Monroe to Atlanta, Georgia, to center itself along its new route network that connected Chicago and New Orleans to Florida.
In the 1950s, Delta began flights from New Orleans to the Caribbean and Venezuela, becoming the number 2 U.S. carrier in the region after Pan Am. By the early 1960s, Delta's route network stretched to the West Coast, and Dallas was emerging as its second hub city.
Delta purchased Northeast Airlines in 1972 to strengthen its market share in the northeastern United States. In 1978, Delta began flying from Atlanta to London with new Lockheed L-1011 TriStar aircraft: Frankfurt was added the following year.
In 1987, Delta took over Western Airlines and absorbed its large hubs at Salt Lake City and Los Angeles. That year, Delta began flights from Portland, Oregon to Tokyo, Seoul, and Bangkok, its first transpacific routes.
Delta's most dramatic expansion came with its purchase of Pan American's European routes in 1991, shortly before Pan Am declared bankruptcy. The purchase gave Delta the largest transatlantic route network through most of the 1990s.
Delta was the first airline to operate the MD-11 aircraft in 1990. Delta operated its last MD-11 flight on January 1, 2004, Flight 56 departing New Tokyo International Airport (now Narita International Airport) at 4:45pm. The aircraft arrived in Atlanta at 3:20pm. This concluded MD-11 service in the fleet, with Delta having retired the other three-engined aircraft, the Boeing 727, in 2003. Its entire active fleet is now comprised of twinjets. Delta had 14 MD-11's at the time of the aircraft's retirement. On September 23, 2004, a Delta spokesperson confirmed plans to sell eight MD-11s to FedEx.
According to Aviation Daily, Delta is planning to retire their 737-200, 737-300, 767-200, and MD-90 fleet.
In 2004, in an effort to avoid bankruptcy, Delta announced a restructuring of the company that included job cuts as well as turnaround plans for expansion of Atlanta operations by some 100 new flights making it a 'super-hub' and requiring the airline to spread its flight schedule more evenly across the day.
On the morning of August 2, 1985, Delta Air Lines Flight 191, on a Fort Lauderdale-Dallas-Los Angeles route, crashed at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, killing 133 of the 164 passengers on board. The crash would later become the subject of a television movie.
On August 31, 1988, Delta Air Lines Flight 1411, bound from Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport to Salt Lake City International Airport, crashed after take-off.
History
Disasters
Delta Air Lines Fleet
Since retiring its MD-11s, Delta has an all-twinjet fleet. Like Continental Airlines, Delta has abolished three-class seating, replacing both first and business class on intercontinental flights with a single premium class called "BusinessElite."
| Type | Number | Total # of seats | Cargo capacity | Engine Model | Audio/Video |
| Boeing 737-200 | 52 | 107 | 850 cu ft | Pratt & Whitney JT8D-15A; | No |
| Boeing 737-300 | 26 | 128 | 850 cu ft | CFM International CFM56-3B1 | No |
| McDonnell Douglas MD-88 | 120 | 142 | 1,253 cu ft | Pratt & Whitney JT8D-219; | No |
| McDonnell Douglas MD-90 | 16 | 150 | 1,300 cu ft | International Aero V2525-D5 | Yes |
| Boeing 737-800 | 71 | 148 | 1,555 cu ft | CFM International CFM56-7B26 | Yes |
| Boeing 757-200 | 121 | 180 | 1,670 cu ft | Pratt & Whitney PW2037; | Yes |
| Boeing 767-200 | 15 | 204 | 2,875 cu ft | GE CF6-80A | Yes |
| Boeing 767-300 | 28 | 252 | 3,770 cu ft | GE CF6-80A2 | Yes |
| Boeing 767-300ER | 59 | 195 | 3,770 cu ft | GE CF6-80C2B6F / Pratt & Whitney PW4060; | Yes |
| Boeing 767-400ER | 21 | 287 | 4,580 cu ft | GE CF6-80C2B7F | Yes |
| Boeing 777-200 | 8 | 277 | 5,656 cu ft | Rolls-Royce Trent 892 | Yes |
Destinations
The list does not include cities only served by Delta Connection.
Asia
East Asia
South Asia
Europe
North America
United States, U.S. Territories, Canada, and Mexico
Bermuda and the Caribbean, excluding US territories
Central America
South America
Other facts of interest
IATA Code
Delta Air Lines uses the IATA designator code DL.
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