Happy 100th, Delta!
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Today, Delta Air Lines turns 100! From a small crop dusting operation in Georgia to America’s premier carrier, they’ve had quite the history, which we’ll dive into here!
Humble Beginnings in the Deep South
Delta’s history starts with a bug problem. In the 1920s, cotton was a big driver of the economy in states like Georgia and Mississippi. Cotton is not an easy plant to grow - they have very specific soil requirements, are water-intensive, and sensitive to cooler temperatures. These problems pale in comparison to the boll weevil. Thought to be native to Central Mexico, the Boll Weevil made its way to the United States in the early 1900s, where it began to devour cotton fields. It remains the most destructive cotton pest in North America, and cost U.S. cotton producers about $13 billion worth of lost goods.
Boll Weevils are exceptionally hard to kill off - just one surviving Weevil can restart an entire colony. The most effective way farmers had to get rid of the pests was to burn the field down, which means no cotton crop for that year. This all changes in 1922, when Entomologist Bert R. Coad begins testing aerially applied chemicals to kill bugs for the US Department of Agriculture. His testing has remarkable success, not only decimating the bugs, but also saving the cotton harvest.
The following year, aircraft manufacturer Huff, Daland & Company, Inc. begins working with Coad to design and build an agricultural airplane. They came up with the Huff-Daland, a biplane capable of dousing fields with chemicals in a matter of minutes.
On March 2nd, 1925, Huff Daland Dusters, Inc. is incorporated. At their inception, they described their mission as “the carrying of passengers, goods, wares and merchandise, for all kinds of commercial purposes, including agricultural and forestry, such as dusting, seeding and sowing, planting and fertilizing, forestry patrol and survey, for aerial survey and photography for any and all uses, for exhibition or advertising purposes, at any place within or without the United States.”
They begin their operation dusting fields in Macon, Georgia, which is about 70 miles south of Atlanta. Newspapers report that within a few weeks there will be 18 “dusting machines,” 12 pilots and 20 mechanics. An interesting side note is that Charles Lindbergh was offered a job with Huff Daland Dusters, which he turned down.
In July of 1925, C.E. Woolman, later the first CEO of Delta, joins Huff Daland as their chief entomologist, around the same time that the operation moves to Monroe, Louisiana. After the move was made, Woolman went to Peru, where he helped establish regularly scheduled passenger flights in the country. His experiences in South America helped pave the way for Huff Daland’s rebranding and the beginning of their passenger services.
On 17 June 1929, Delta Air Service, named for the Mississippi Delta where it had it’s roots, began flying 5-passenger Travel Airs from Dallas, Texas, to Jackson, Mississippi, with stops in Shreveport and Monroe, Louisiana. By the following year, they had added Atlanta and Fort Worth to their network. Delta Air Service had a rough run of things - they terminate their routes in October 1930 after they lost the airmail contract, which was absolutely essential to keep operating. It wasn’t anywhere close to lucrative enough to just fly passengers.
Delta received a Hail Mary in 1934, after the Air Mail Scandal. The Air Mail scandal occurred when the U.S. government canceled private air mail contracts and transferred delivery to the inexperienced Army Air Corps, leading to fatal crashes and public outrage. This forced the government to reinstate private carriers under new regulations. Delta was awarded a route between Charleston, South Carolina, and Fort Worth, Texas, with stops along the way.
Move to Atlanta & Rapid Growth
In 1941, Delta moved its headquarters from Monroe to Atlanta. At the time, Atlanta was the South’s fastest growing city, making it ripe for new passenger routes. They opened destinations branching off the Charleston - Fort Worth routing, including to Cincinnati and New Orleans. Delta found success in Miami, Detroit, Minneapolis, and Chicago in 1945. This led to their first international flights - New Orleans to Caracas via Havana. The airline was growing like crazy, adding new flights on the DC-7 to the East Coast, to cities like New York, Boston, and Washington, D.C. They got their first jet, the Douglas DC-8 in September of 1959. This is when the iconic red, white, and blue triangle logo (the so called “widget”) was first utilized. In 1961, Delta’s routes expanded west with the first nonstop service between Atlanta and California. This really solidified Atlanta’s status as a connecting hub, which is most certainly still true to this day.
Delta acquired Northeast Airlines in 1972, and they inherited dozens of routes between key hubs across the densely populated East Coast. Trans-Atlantic service began in 1978 with the first nonstop service from Atlanta to London.
Into the 80’s
The 1980s were a pivotal time for Delta Air Lines. They were solidly in place as a global carrier, and were at the forefront of aviation development in the US. They opened the first frequent flyer program in the country in 1981 (which later became SkyMiles). That same year, they took delivery of their first 757s and 767s, named the Spirit of Delta. In 1987, Delta merged with Western Airlines and subsequently launched Trans-Pacific flights, from Atlanta to Tokyo via Portland.
In 1990, Delta became the first American operator of the MD-11, leasing two from Mitsui. After Pan Am filed for bankruptcy in 1991, Delta acquired Pan Am’s East Coast and European routes including intra-European routes from the Frankfurt hub. They also assumed a controlling interest in the remainder of Pan Am, which continued to operate routes from Miami to London, Paris and Latin America. The Pan Am transaction gave Delta the largest transatlantic route network among U.S. airlines. Throughout the 1990s, Delta grew its Trans-Pacific offerings to, almost exclusively from Portland, which was maintained as a secondary hub. At the time, their primary hubs were in Atlanta, Cincinnati, Dallas, and Salt Lake City.
In 1997 Delta broke a record in American aviation, becoming the first airline to fly 100 million passengers in a single year.
Delta in the 2000s
In 2000, Delta partnered with AeroMexico, Air France, and Korean Air to form SkyTeam, which today is the second largest airline alliance in the world. Around that time, Delta began a radical renovation of their fleet, and began ditching trijets in favor of more efficient aircraft. The Lockheed L-1011’s, for example, were replaced with the Boeing 767–400, while the MD-11s were replaced with 777-200s.
Around this time, Delta began having some financial struggles. On September 14, 2005, Delta filed for bankruptcy with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York, in Manhattan. They declared a whopping $28.27 billion in debts. As part of their reorganization under bankruptcy, they slashed routes from Cincinnati and Los Angeles. On April 25, 2007, the airline’s bankruptcy plan was approved by the bankruptcy court. Later that week, they emerged from bankruptcy.
Merger with Northwest
On April 14, 2008, following merger talks first reported on January 15, 2008, Delta and Minneapolis - based Northwest Airlines announced that they would merge to create the world’s largest airline under the Delta name. The deal initially faced scrutiny from the United States Department of Justice on antitrust grounds, however the deal was soon approved after legislative pressure as the two carrier’s routes had minimal overlap.
The new airline was the largest in the world - it had a 786 strong fleet and an enterprise value of $17.7 billion. The merger led to a dramatic change in the structure of Delta’s hubs. Literally overnight they inherited massive hubs in Minneapolis, Seattle, and Detroit, cities Delta had a fairly minimal presence in prior to the deal. The merger also added dramatically to Delta’s international route offerings, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region.
Delta Today
Today, Delta has over 5,400 flights daily and serve 325 destinations in 52 countries on six continents. Delta ranks first in revenue and brand value among the world’s largest airlines, and second by number of passengers carried, passenger miles flown, and fleet size. Delta often tops lists of best airlines in the US, having won such awards from big names like Forbes, the Wall Street Journal, and Condé Nast Traveler. They have hubs in Atlanta, Minneapolis, Boston, Detroit, New York (LGA & JFK), Salt Lake City, Los Angeles, and Seattle, as well as focus cities in Austin and Raleigh.
They operate a fleet of 990 mainline aircraft, varying from older models like the Boeing 717 and 767-400ERs to ultra-modern jets like the A350-900 and A321neo.
