Flights with Delta Airlines:
An overview of Delta Airlines
Delta Airlines was formed as the Huff Daland Dusters in May 1924. The company was the first company in the world to do crop dusting from an aircraft. C. E. Woolman then purchased the company in 1928 and renamed it Delta Air Services. It was named after its first route that connected Dallas to Jackson, the Mississippi Delta. Delta soon started providing mail services and, by 1934, they were operating from Charleston to Fort Worth.
In 1941 the airline shifted headquarters to Atlanta so that it could be centrally located in relation to the routes it was operating: Chicago to New Orleans to Miami, and back. In 1953 the airline bought Chicago and Southern airlines and operated under the name of Delta CS airlines for 2 years.
By the beginning of the 1970s, airlines had started using jets for long hauls. Not to be left behind by its competition, Delta too entered the era of jet aircrafts. Delta followed up its purchase of new Boeing 747s by buying Northeast Airlines in the year 1972. This not only strengthened the airline but also expanded its routes offering more destinations to its passengers.
The year after, in 1973, Delta bought the Lockheed TriStar and opened up international services to London from Atlanta. A route to Frankfurt followed and by August 1979, Delta became the world’s first airline to carry one million passengers in any one city in a month.
The airline soon launched a cargo service called Delta Air Express, followed by its frequent flyer program. This program was renamed SkyMiles in 1995.
In the 1990s Delta was the first airline in the United States to fly the McDonnell Douglas MD-11.
The Olympic Torch was also carried by Delta in 1996. This journey was made from Athens to Los Angeles for the Summer Games of the Olympics in Atlanta. Delta was given the title of official airline for the games.
In keeping with its extensive expansion over the years, Delta also entered into a partnership with a helicopter company, U S Helicopters, providing service from the JFK Airport to Manhattan.
March 2008 saw the merger of Northwest Airlines and Delta, creating the world’s largest airline. Post merger, the airlines r are now jointly worth $17.1 billion.
Apart from commercial airlines, Delta offers a host of aviation-linked services. They offer training programs for in-flight services and managerial development, cargo services, aircraft maintenance and Air–to–Ground Radio services.
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Globe Trotting with Delta Airlines :
Delta offers flights out of South Africa but only to a few select destinations like Paris, Atlanta and Dakar. In order to give its passengers a wider option of destinations Delta, along with Air France, Air Mexico and Korean Air, created a global alliance in 2000 called SkyTeam.
A few years after, Delta implemented what would be the largest codeshare partnership with Northwest Airlines and Continental Airlines. The SkyTeam alliance consists of Air France, AeroMexico, Aeroflot, Continental Airlines, China Southern, Alitalia, Delta, KLM, Czech Airlines, Northwest and Korean Air.
SkyTeam offers its passengers a wide variety of flight options and better benefits. Passengers also have the option of earning and redeeming travel miles with any of the partner airlines.
Apart from Delta’s flight to Atlanta, passengers wanting to travel out of South Africa to the USA, have the choice of travelling with SkyTeam partners Air France and KLM.
Air France has its hubs in Johannesburg, Cape Town, East London, George and Port Elizabeth. In addition to offering flights to Chicago, New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco, it also connects to Paris, Barcelona, Brussels, Frankfurt, Geneva, London, Rome and Venice.
KLM is also another viable option if you want to fly to either New York or Chicago. Other flights offered are to Toronto, Vancouver, Amsterdam, Madrid, Rome, Los Angeles, London, Paris, Geneva, Berlin and Glasgow. KLM flies from Johannesburg, Durban, Port Elizabeth and Cape Town.