Air Plane Photos 2013: Delta Airplanes

Delta Airplanes

Source(www.google.com.pk)

Delta Air Lines, Inc. (NYSE: DAL), operating as Delta Air Lines, is a major United States airline headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, in the United States.[11] The airline operates an extensive domestic and international network serving all continents except Antarctica. Delta Air Lines and its subsidiaries operate over 5,000 flights every day and have approximately 80,000 employees.[12] The airline's hub at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport is the world's busiest airport by passenger traffic (over 91 million passengers per year) and number of landings and takeoffs, it is also home to Delta TechOps, Delta's Technical Operations Center. Delta is the sixth-oldest operating airline by foundation date, and the oldest airline still operating in the United States. Delta Air Lines is one of the four founding members of the SkyTeam airline alliance,[12] the other three being Korean Air, Air France, and Aeroméxico. The loyalty program for Delta Air Lines is SkyMiles. Delta Air Lines was the world's largest airline in terms of fleet size in 2011[13] and scheduled passenger traffic in 2012,[14] and the second-largest in terms of revenue passenger-kilometers flown in 2012.[15] Regional service for the airline is served by Delta Connection.

Delta Air Lines was created as Huff Daland Dusters, Incorporated, an aerial crop dusting operation, on May 30, 1924 in Macon, Georgia. Formed with a Huff-Daland Duster, the first true crop duster, the plane was deployed to combat the boll weevil in 1925. Delta Air Corporation owned the plane (now in the Southern Museum of Flight). The company moved to Monroe in Ouachita Parish in northeastern Louisiana in 1925, and began carrying passengers in late 1929. The single passenger sat in a chair placed in the bin where the pesticide was usually kept. The first routes were between Southeastern states. Collett E. Woolman purchased the company on September 13, 1928, and renamed it Delta Air Service.[16]

Delta grew through the addition of routes and the acquisition of other airlines. They replaced propeller planes with jets in the 1960s and entered international competition to Europe in the 1970s and across the Pacific in the 1980s. The company logo of Delta Air Lines, originally unveiled in 1959, is reminiscent of the swept-wing design of the DC-8 airplanes. Often termed as the “widget” logo, the current version consists of two 3D triangles.[17]

The current Delta Air Lines is the result of many airline mergers over a period of more than 80 years. The most recent merger was with Northwest Airlines on October 29, 2008 and at the time formed the world's largest airline. After approval of the merger, Northwest continued to operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of Delta until December 31, 2009 when both carriers' operating certificates were merged (the Delta certificate was kept).[18] Delta completed the integration with Northwest on January 31, 2010 when their reservation systems and websites were combined, and the Northwest Airlines name and brand were officially retired.[19]

Predecessor carriers forming the current Delta Air Lines include:

Chicago and Southern Air Lines (formed in 1933, merged into Delta in 1953).[16] Delta flew under the carrier name of Delta-C&S for the following two years.[20]

Northeast Airlines (formed in 1931, merged into Delta in August 1972)[16][21]

Northwest Airlines (formed in 1926, merged into Delta in 2010. Also known as Northwest Orient Airlines from 1950-1989)

Republic Airlines (formed in 1979, merged into Northwest Airlines in 1986)

Hughes Airwest (formed in 1968 as Air West, name change to Hughes Airwest in 1970, merged into Republic Airlines in 1980)

Bonanza Air Lines (formed in 1945, merged into Hughes Airwest (Air West) in 1968)

Pacific Air Lines (formed in 1941, merged into Hughes Airwest (Air West) in 1968)

West Coast Airlines (formed in 1941, merged into Hughes Airwest (Air West) in 1968)

North Central Airlines (formed in 1946, merged into Republic Airlines in 1979)

Southern Airways (formed in 1944, merged into Republic Airlines in 1979)

Pan American World Airways (formed in 1927, portions of which were merged into Delta in 1991)

Atlantic, Gulf, and Caribbean Airways (formed in 1927, merged into Pan American World Airways in 1928)

American Overseas Airlines (formed in 1937, merged into Pan American World Airways in 1950)

Aviation Corporation of the Americas/American International Airways (formed in 1926, merged into Pan American World Airways in 1928)

National Airlines (formed in 1934, merged into Pan American World Airways in 1980)

Western Airlines (formed in 1925, merged into Delta in 1987)

Standard Air Lines (formed in 1927, merged into Western Airlines in 1930)

Delta's corporate headquarters is housed in a corporate campus on the northern boundary of Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, within the city limits of Atlanta.[24][25][26] This location has served as Delta's headquarters since 1941, when the company relocated its corporate offices from Monroe, Louisiana to Atlanta.[27][28] In addition to hosting Delta's corporate headquarters, Hartsfield-Jackson is also the home of Delta TechOps, Delta's Technical Operations Center, which is the airline's primary maintenance, repair and overhaul arm and the largest full-service airline MRO in North America, specializing in engines, components, airframe and line maintenance.[29]

Delta maintains a large presence in the Twin Cities, with over 12,000 employees[30] in the region as well as significant corporate support functions housed in the Minneapolis area, including the company's information technology divisional offices.[31]

each aircraft's vertical stabilizer to refer to Delta's origins as a carrier in the Mississippi Delta.[32]

The previous livery, "Colors in Motion", used eight colors. Delta introduced its current branding in 2007 after it emerged from bankruptcy. The switch from the previous livery to the current livery removed one day from each aircraft's painting cycle, allowing the airline to save money. The airline took four years to repaint all of its aircraft into the current scheme, including aircraft inherited from Northwest Airlines.[32] The triangle logo, known internally as "the Widget", was introduced in 1959. It was not part of the "Colors in Motion" livery, but returned with the current livery.[citation needed]