DELTA AIR LINES
AIRLINE OF THE YEAR
It all started in 1925 when Huff Daland Dusters, the predecessor of Delta, was founded in Macon, Georgia, before moving to Monroe, Louisiana, a few months later. Huff Daland was the first commercial agricultural flying company, and with 18 planes it became the largest privately owned fleet in the world. Later, Daland operated the first international mail and passenger route on the west coast of South America for Pan Am subsidiary Peruvian Airways.
Three years later, C.E. Woolman bought the company and renamed it Delta Air Service after the Mississippi Delta region. In 1929 Delta operated its first passenger flight from Dallas, Texas, to Jackson, Mississippi, with stops in Shreveport and Monroe, Louisiana. Service soon expanded to Birmingham and Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and Meridian, Mississippi.
Eventually, Delta Air Lines grew larger, expanded internationally and provided more services. Since the beginning, Delta has led the industry in everything from COVID-19 protocols to the latest technology in apps, aviation and more.
Delta most recently committed investment in net-zero aviation through the Aviation Climate Taskforce — a new nonprofit organization founded to tackle the challenge of eliminating carbon dioxide emissions in aviation, with the goal to accelerate breakthroughs in emerging decarbonization technologies by 10 years or more.
“We’re still too far from real, scalable solutions to clean air travel. We need SAF [Sustainable Aviation Fuel] to be just as accessible as oil, and new engine technologies to come to market exponentially faster, if we are going to meet industry goals,” said Amelia Deluca, managing director of sustainability, Delta.
Not only does Delta Air Lines focus on becoming more sustainable, the airline also strives to shine in inclusion, diversity and equality. Delta Air Lines provides 1,000 shares of stock to the “One Stock. One Future.” initiative that helps support Black and Latinx students across the United States as part of a joint initiative aimed at setting youth on a path to financial independence and closing the country’s wealth gap. Goal setter and philanthropist Robert F. Smith, founder, chairman and CEO, Vista Equity Partners, leads the “One Stock. One Future.” initiative.
The program, which calls on Fortune 1000 companies to collectively donate 1 million shares of stocks, kicked off in October by gifting five shares of stock to 2,900 students, educators and staff members at Eagle Academies for Young Men, a network of public, all-boys schools serving young men of color in New York City and
Newark, New Jersey.