Delta Air Lines is a major American airline. The history of it predecessor companies begins with the world's first aerial crop dusting operation called Huff Daland Dusters Inc., founded on March 2, 1925 in Macon, Georgia to combat the boll weevil infestation of cotton crops. C.E. Woolman, general manager and later Delta's first CEO, led a group of investors to acquire the company's assets. Delta Air Service was incorporated on December 3, 1928, and named after the Mississippi Delta region.
Passenger operations began on June 16, 1929, from Dallas, Texas, to Jackson, Mississippi, soon extending east to Atlanta and west to Fort Worth, Texas. Passenger service ceased in October 1930 when the air mail contract for the route Delta had pioneered was awarded to another airline. Woolman and other investors incorporated the former crop-dusting assets of Delta Air Service as Delta Air Corporation in 1930. The company began doing business as Delta Air Lines, carrying mail from Fort Worth to Charleston, South Carolina. The company's name was officially changed in 1945.
Through the 1950s and 1960s, Delta was the first airline to fly the Douglas DC-8, Convair 880, and McDonnell Douglas DC-9 aircraft. By 1970, it had an all-jet fleet. Trans-Atlantic service began in 1978 with the first nonstop flights from Atlanta to London. In 1990, Delta was the first airline in the United States to fly McDonnell Douglas MD-11 jets. It became the leading trans-Atlantic airline after acquiring the majority of Pan American World Airways' trans-Atlantic routes.
The company filed for bankruptcy in 2005, citing rising fuel costs. It emerged from bankruptcy in 2007 after fending off a hostile takeover from US Airways. In 2008, Delta acquired Northwest Airlines, which continued to operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of Delta until December 31, 2009. The two companies' computer reservations systems and websites were combined in 2010, and the Northwest Airlines brand was officially retired.
Timeline
1925 through 1940
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. 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. It was founded on 2 March 1925, in Macon, Georgia, and became the world's first aerial crop dusting company. The company moved to Monroe, Louisiana, in summer 1925. 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.
The new company was named Delta Air Service, with its headquarters in Monroe. La. The name Delta, referring to the Mississippi Delta region, was suggested by Catherine FitzGerald, a secretary who later would rise to the rank of an executive in the company. On 17 June 1929, Delta Air Service began flying 5-passenger Travel Airs from Dallas, Texas, to Jackson, Mississippi, with stops in Shreveport and Monroe, Louisiana. By June 1930, Delta's route had expanded eastward to Atlanta, the fastest-growing city in the South, and westward to Fort Worth, Texas.
This service was terminated in October 1930 after the "Spoils Conference", when the Post Office awarded the route to an American Airlines predecessor. Delta's lack of success in winning a commercial airmail contract—the bread and butter of any aspiring airline—jeopardized its existence. Delta Air Service suspended passenger service, and sold its assets to its competitor. Local banker Travis Oliver, acting as trustee, C.E. Woolman and other local investors purchased back the crop-dusting assets of Delta Air Service and incorporated as Delta Air Corporation on December 31, 1930.
A reprieve came for Delta on the heels of the "airmail scandal", when the U.S. Congress enacted the Air Mail Act of 1934. C.E. Woolman secured a low-bid contract for the new Mail Route 24, flying used Stinson "T" Trimotors, with a route from Charleston, South Carolina, to Fort Worth, with stops in Columbia, Augusta, Atlanta, Birmingham, and Meridian along the way. Mail service began July 4, 1934, and passenger service on August 5. Doing business as Delta Air Lines.
1940s and 1950s In 1941, Delta moved its headquarters from Monroe to Atlanta.
Until 1941, Delta's network was an unbranched string of twelve cities from Fort Worth to Charleston SC. 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. Those ten flights and their returns were Delta's whole schedule.
Delta's routes started extending north and south. In 1943, Delta added service to New Orleans, and in 1945 Chicago and Miami. The company name officially became Delta Air Lines in 1945. Regularly scheduled cargo service began in 1946.
Delta purchased Chicago and Southern Air Lines in 1953 and flew under the name Delta-C&S for the next two years. This added a north–south network from Chicago and Detroit to Houston and New Orleans – and Delta's first international route, New Orleans to Caracas via Havana. 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. Delta had no direct flights between the Northeast and Florida until it merged Northeast Airlines in 1972.
+ Revenue Passenger-Miles (Millions)(Sched Service Only) Delta Northeast C&S 1951 402 88 200 1955 1008 116 (merged DL) 1960 1870 565 1965 4304 666 1970 9713 1856 1975 16460 (merged)
1960s and 1970s
Delta added jet airliners to its fleet in the 1960s; the Douglas DC-8 entered service in September 1959. Delta's new red, white, and blue triangle logo (the "widget") on their aircraft represented the jet's swept wing, as well as the Greek letter delta. Convair 880s were added in 1960 (they set a coast-to-coast record) and in 1965 the DC-9. Delta became an all-jet airline in 1970.
In 1961, Delta's routes expanded west with the first nonstop service between Atlanta and California. Delta acquired Northeast Airlines in 1972. Delta purchased some Boeing 747-100s, which were later sold to China Airlines in favour of the Lockheed L-1011. Trans-Atlantic service began in 1978 with the first nonstop service from Atlanta to London.
1980s
Delta launched its first frequent flyer program in 1981 which became the SkyMiles program in 1995. In 1982, the airline acquired its first Boeing 737s. Also in December 1982, Delta took delivery of its first 757 and 767–200, named the Spirit of Delta, which was paid for "by voluntary contributions from employees, retirees and Delta's community partners." The effort, called Project 767, was spearheaded by three Delta flight attendants to show the employees' appreciation to Delta for solid management and strong leadership during the first years following airline deregulation." 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. In 1987, Delta merged with Western Airlines, inheriting Western's hubs in Salt Lake City and Los Angeles, while Ron Allen became CEO of the combined airline. Trans-Pacific service began in 1987 (Atlanta-Portland, Or.-Tokyo).
1990s
In 1990, Delta became the first U.S. airline to operate the McDonnell Douglas MD-11 aircraft,MD-11 jumbo jet arriving to fly Delta into the future, Atlanta Journal-Constitution December 22, 1990 leasing two from Mitsui.
Delta expanded dramatically by purchasing most of Pan Am's European routes after Pan Am declared bankruptcy in 1991. 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. On 1 September, Delta acquired Pan Am's East Coast and European routes including intra-European routes from the Frankfurt hub, (IGS routes to and from Berlin were acquired by Lufthansa) and assumed a controlling interest in the remainder of Pan Am, which continued to operate routes from Miami to London, Paris and Latin America. The total price for these assets was $1.3 billion.
Although Delta initially promised further equity injections to keep Pan Am afloat, it decided not to do so a month later, which forced Pan Am to cease operations on December 4, 1991. United purchased the remaining assets of Pan Am a few days later, including transatlantic routes from Miami, for a total of $135 million.
The Pan Am creditors' committee sued Delta for more than $2.5 billion on 9 December. In December 1994, a federal judge ruled in favor of Delta, concluding that it was not liable for Pan Am's demise.
The Pan Am transaction gave Delta the largest transatlantic route network among U.S. airlines. Because of these acquisitions, Delta became and remains the largest U.S. transatlantic carrier, in terms of passengers carried and the number of flights operated. The ex-Pan Am routes acquired by Delta included Detroit to London, despite Northwest Airlines' objections due to Delta's small presence in Detroit and Northwest's comparatively larger operations. Northwest later attempted to buy USAir's (later US Airways) Baltimore-London route for $5 million and transfer the route to Detroit but ended up buying the route from Delta in 1995.
Throughout the 1990s, Delta maintained a secondary hub at Portland for its Asia operations. In addition to regularly scheduled flights to Delta's primary hubs during this time (Atlanta, Cincinnati, Dallas, and Salt Lake City), several of Delta's flights to Asia were routed from Portland and Los Angeles, using L-1011 and MD-11 aircraft. Destinations included Bangkok, Fukuoka (resumed 28 December 2011 from Honolulu as a seasonal route), Hong Kong, Manila, Nagoya, Seoul, Taipei, and Tokyo (resumed 3 June 2009 replacing Northwest Airlines route). Delta was one of the airlines targeted in the failed Operation Bojinka plot: the conspirators planned to bomb a Delta MD-11 flying from Seoul to Bangkok via Taipei on 21 January 1995.
In 1997, Delta achieved an unprecedented milestone in the airline industry: the first airline to board more than 100 million passengers in a single year. Delta also began an expansion of US-Latin America routes.
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. This scheme allowed members of either frequent flier program to earn miles on both carriers and utilize both carriers' lounges. Delta and United attempted to introduce an even closer codeshare agreement, but this was deal was effectively killed by ALPA.
2000s In 2000, Delta partnered with AeroMéxico, Air France, and Korean Air to form SkyTeam, a global alliance. Three years later, Delta began the largest domestic codeshare alliance with Continental Airlines and Northwest Airlines. Today SkyTeam is the second largest airline alliance in the world (after Star Alliance).