Delta Air Lines

Delta Air is a major U.S. airline headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, operating a large domestic and international network that spans North America, South America, Europe, Asia, and the Caribbean.

Delta operates hubs at Atlanta, Cincinnati, New York-JFK, and Salt Lake City. Delta also has great operations in many other cities, including Boston, Columbus, Fort Lauderdale, Los Angeles, New York-LaGuardia, Orlando, and Washington-Reagan. Delta is also the foremost hauler in Florida. Its key worldwide gateways are Atlanta, Cincinnati, and New York-JFK.

In terms of passengers approved, Delta is the second-largest airline in the world. In terms of total operating revenues, Delta is the fourth-largest airline in the world As of September 1, 2005, Delta served 178 domestic cities in 46 states, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, as well as 71 international cities, including 10 future ones, in 45 countries.

Early history

Delta timetable from 1934
Delta Boeing 747, operated by Pan Am, at London Heathrow Airport in May 1974.The corporation has its roots in Huff Daland Dusters, which was founded in 1924 in Macon, Georgia by more than a few partners with Collett E. Woolman becoming the world's first aerial crop dusting company. Huff Daland moved to Monroe, Louisiana the following year. In 1928, Huff Daland Dusters was purchased by C.E. Woolman and renamed Delta Air military after the Mississippi Delta, where its route joined Dallas, Texas to Jackson, Mississippi, via Shreveport, Louisiana and Monroe. By 1934, Delta Air began mail service from Charleston to Fort Worth, including Atlanta, Augusta and other stops in Georgia.

In 1941, Delta enthused its headquarters from Monroe to Atlanta, Georgia, to center itself along its new way network that joined Chicago and New Orleans to Florida and Ohio which would later become a Delta hub. 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 and Braniff. On May 1, 1953, Delta combined with Chicago and Southern to enlarge routes in Midwest. In 1955 Delta introduced the "hub and spoke system" where flights are running scared to a central point then sent out to other cities. By the early 1960s, Delta's route network extended to the West Coast, and Dallas was emerging as its second hub city.