Delta Airlines: Past, Present, and Future Essay

Delta Airlines in a major American airline company headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. The company was founded on May 30, 1924. They operate as an extensive domestic and international network. Delta currently operates a fleet of more than 700 aircraft and they employ approximately 80,000 people. In 2011 they were the world’s largest airline in terms of fleet size. Delta Airlines is a very successful company. Part of what makes them so successful is expansion, making good decisions in route selection and hubs location, being service oriented, having a strong operation management, being reactive in terms of prices, and offering low fares.

Delta airline uses merger so as to be able to expend its business. In 2008 the company merged with Northwest airlines. It operates in Europe, North America and Asia/Pacific regions. Once the merger was complete, Northwest Airlines and all its constituents become wholly-owned by Delta Airlines. The merger saw to it that Delta Airlines started operating in the Northwest for FY 2008. In the period of two month that is from October of 2008 the time the merger was completed to December of 2008, the company had increased it revenues to $2 billion. Having a flexible nature, allows Delta to improve customer services, and in the long run be able to achieve its strategic objectives.

While Frontier and Delta are both popular choices of airlines for Americans, Delta has become more of a household name because of their friendlier service, more comfortable cabins, and their limited extras fees. Frontier airline still is a worthy competitor by being cheaper, but they also have many added on fees for things that are free with Delta. Overall, Delta knows how to take better care of their customers and make sure everyone is satisfied.

Over 35 years ago, Rollin King and Herb Kelleher decided to create a different type of airline. They began with the simple notion: If you get your passengers to their destinations when they want to get there, on time and at the lowest possible fares, and make darn sure they have a good time doing it, people will fly your airline. They were right (Southwest Airlines, 2004)!

Delta Airlines initially started out as a very small crop dusting operation named Huff Daland Dusters in 1942 (Delta, 2016). Today, Delta has become one of the largest global airlines with serving more than 160 million travelers each year (Delta, 2016). Delta airlines provide both domestic and international flights to customers to 318 destinations over a span of six continents. They also have nine domestic hubs and three international hubs (Delta, 2016).

Delta Airlines is the largest airline carrier on the Atlantic Coast. In terms of scheduled passengers carried they were world’s largest airline with 277.6 billion in 2013. Also the second largest

The Delta airlines serve more than 170 million customers each year.the survey conducted by Business travel news annually the delta airlines came No.1 for four continues years.

This report provides an examinaion of the current structure, performance, stragergy and management of Delta Airlines, along with an industry analysis of the airline industry. The report uses current and past financial and statistical data for the company along with other up to date material to determine Delta's current market position and future potential.

The company I chose to research is Delta which is in the airlines industry. Delta is one of the world’s largest global airlines that assist more than 160 million travelers get to destinations around the world. The company started in 1924 as a small aerial crop dusting operation known as Huff Daland Dusters. In 1929 Delta had its first passenger flights that went from Dallas, Texas to Jackson, Mississippi. This flight was taken on an airplane that carried 5 passengers and 1 pilot. Delta has been offering its service to customers for 85 years. For four consecutive years, Delta has been ranked No. 1 in the Business Travel News Annual Airline survey. This is a huge accomplishment because it is a first for any airline. It is important

This service was concluded in 1934 after the "Spoils Conference", when the Post Office granted the route to American Airlines (Pope, 2009). Delta 's failure in winning a commercial airmail contract threatened its existence, and the company postponed passenger service. A reprieve came for Delta soon after the U.S. Congress enacted the Air Mail Act of 1934. Delta received a low-bid contract for the new airmail service route between Dallas and Charleston, South Carolina, via Atlanta. In the same year Delta recommenced passenger services (“History of Delta Air Lines”, 2017).

On April 15, 1926, Charles Lindbergh flew the first American Airlines flight – carrying U.S. mail from St. Louis, Missouri, to Chicago, Illinois. After 8 years of mail routes, the airline began to form into what it is today. American founder C.R. Smith worked with Donald Douglas to create the DC-3; a plane that changed the entire airline industry, switching revenue sources from mail to passengers.

Delta Air Lines began in the early 1920’s as a crop dusting operation, known as the Huff Daland crop dusting company, and was based out of Macon, Ga. This was the first agricultural flying company in existence at the time and grew into the world’s largest privately owned fleet of aircraft (18 planes) by the mid 1920’s. At the turn of the decade, co-founder C.E. Woolman lead a movement to purchase Huff Daland and re-branded the company as Delta Air Service, named after the Mississippi River Delta region the company would navigate.

New technology: Internet (60% of seats were booked on-line), paperless operation, computerized, Reservation operation (not using call center)

As with all airlines, Delta’s recent performance has been significantly impacted by industry shifts and external events. Terrorist attacks and escalating costs have significantly impacted Delta’s profitability in recent history (Rivkin 4). The company has also been losing valuable market share to the low-cost carrier Southwest Airlines throughout the southeast and specifically in the lucrative Florida market (Rivkin 8). JetBlue also began encroaching on key Delta routes, and this seems only likely to increase (Rivkin 9). Despite this, Delta has still performed better than any other legacy carrier (Rivkin 8). Still, recent history has brought several changes to this legacy carrier, and the company has turned its attention towards new competitive strategies.

The company incorporated in June 1971 and officially began operations on April 17, 1973, with the launch of 14 small aircraft from Memphis International Airport. It soon became the premier carrier of high-priority goods in the marketplace and the standard setter for the industry it established.