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Douglas DC-8-51 flown by Delta Air Lines, landing at Miami International Airport in 1971
Current Delta Air Lines logo from 2007
Delta Air Lines is a major American airline.[1][2] The company's history began with the world's first aerial crop dusting operation called Huff Daland Dusters Inc., founded in 1925 in Macon, Georgia[3] to combat the boll weevil infestation of cotton crops.[4] 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.[5][6][7][8]
Passenger operations began in 1929, from Dallas, Texas, to Jackson, Mississippi, soon extending east to Atlanta and west to Fort Worth, Texas.[9] 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.[9][10][3] The company's name was officially changed in 1945.[11]
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.[8][12]
The company filed for bankruptcy in 2005, citing rising fuel costs.[13][14][15] It emerged from bankruptcy in 2007 after fending off a hostile takeover from US Airways.[16][17][18] In 2008, Delta acquired Northwest Airlines, which continued to operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of Delta until December 31, 2009.[19] The two companies' computer reservations systems and websites were combined in 2010, and the Northwest Airlines brand was officially retired.[20]
^Delta Flight Museum. "Founding". www.deltamuseum.org. Retrieved 2 October 2019.
^"Delta's history: From dusting crops to connecting the world". Delta News Hub. Retrieved 2 October 2019.
^ ab"Founding". www.deltamuseum.org. Archived from the original on 1 October 2019. Retrieved 2 October 2019.
^"Huff Daland Duster, 1925-ca.1948". www.deltamuseum.org. Archived from the original on 2 October 2019. Retrieved 2 October 2019.
^Lewis and Newton (1979). Delta: The History of an Airline. Athens, Ga.: University of Georgia Press. pp. 20–21.
^"C.E. Woolman". Delta Flight Museum. Archived from the original on 14 April 2019.
^"Founder's vision resonates today". Delta Air Lines. 19 August 2015. Archived from the original on 5 July 2018. Retrieved 5 July 2018.
^ abGay, Charles (23 April 2016). "Delta's journey: A timeline". Delta Air Lines. Archived from the original on 17 July 2019. Retrieved 17 July 2019.
^ ab"First Flights". www.deltamuseum.org. Archived from the original on 1 October 2019. Retrieved 2 October 2019.
^Lewis and Newton (1979). Delta: The History of an Airline. Athens, Ga.: University of Georgia Press. pp. 28–29, 43.
^"1940s". www.deltamuseum.org. Archived from the original on 1 October 2019. Retrieved 2 October 2019.
^Delta Flight Museum. "Delta Timeline". www.deltamuseum.org. Archived from the original on 14 April 2019. Retrieved 2 October 2019.
^Ramos, Rachel Tobin (14 September 2005). "Delta files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy". American City Business Journals.
^Isidore, Chris (15 September 2005). "Delta Air Lines files for bankruptcy". CNN. Archived from the original on 21 July 2019. Retrieved 27 July 2019.
^Pace, Gina (14 September 2005). "Delta Files For Bankruptcy". CBS News. Archived from the original on 21 July 2019. Retrieved 27 July 2019.
^Reiter, Chris (30 April 2007). "Delta exits bankruptcy after 19-month restructuring". Reuters. Archived from the original on 21 July 2019. Retrieved 27 July 2019.
^Lagorce, Aude; Cassidy, Padraic (30 April 2007). "Delta Air Lines exits bankruptcy". Marketwatch. Archived from the original on 21 July 2019. Retrieved 27 July 2019.
^Isidore, Chris (30 April 2007). "Delta exits bankruptcy with planes full". CNN. Archived from the original on 21 July 2019. Retrieved 27 July 2019.
^Heslin, Rebecca (31 December 2009). "Delta, Northwest approved to fly under single operating certificate". USA Today. Archived from the original on 13 April 2014. Retrieved 30 April 2019.
^Jad Mouawad (18 May 2011). "Delta-Northwest Merger's Long and Complex Path". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 31 March 2017. Retrieved 7 February 2017.
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