Delta Airlines

  Delta Air Lines

Delta Air Lines or more popularly known as Delta is one of the most important airlines of the United States of America. It is a legacy carrier and has its headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. Delta Air Line is recognized for its massive fleet with operations of nearly 5,400 flights daily. This includes the subsidiaries and regional affiliates of the airline. Delta Air Lines serves about 325 destinations worldwide as it covers 52 countries across six continents. Delta, one of the founding members of the SkyTeam airline alliance, came into existence in 2000, along with Air France, Aeroméxico and Korean Air. The airline has nine hubs across North American with Atlanta being its major hub concerning passenger traffic as well as the number of scheduled departures. Delta is the second-largest airline in the world in terms of scheduled passengers carried as well as revenue passenger-kilometres carried as well as fleet size. The other hubs of Delta include Boston, Detroit, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New York-JFK, New York-LaGuardia, Salt Lake City and Seattle/Tacoma.

Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport's campus has been serving as the headquarters to Delta since 1941. In 2008, the airlines received an award for its use of an environmentally friendly non-hexavalent chromium surface treatment on its aircraft. The airlines replaced the hazardous chemicals that would be used as paint adhesion while simultaneously preventing corrosion. The United States Environmental Protection Agency's Design for the Environment program acknowledged the airline's use of PreKote that also helped reduce the wastage of water. Delta's logo or also called widget was originally introduced in 1959. The logo is a triangle shape which represents the Greek letter delta. The current livery of Delta is called Upward and Onward. The fuselage of Delta aircraft features the name of the company in blue lettering while the widget is painted on the vertical stabilizer. The present livery was brought in the picture in 2007 as part of their rebranding strategy after recovering from bankruptcy.

Fleet size of Delta Air Lines

As of 2020, Delta Air Lines' fleet size is 840 aircraft. All the aircraft in the airline's fleet are manufactured by Boeing and Airbus. Delta Air Lines holds the top position for operating the largest fleets of Boeing 717, Boeing 757 and Boeing 767. It also operates the largest fleet of Airbus A330 for any US airline. Before the merger with Northwest Airlines, Delta Air Lines' fleet solely comprised of Boeing and McDonnell Douglas aircraft. After the merger though, the airlines added Airbus aircraft to its fleet. Delta has worked towards enhancing its fleet and maintaining the fleet. Hence, they created an extensive maintenance, repair and overhaul organization going by the name TechOps. The primary focus of their MRO has been to utilize the older aircraft, especially the narrow-body ones and to refurbish them for commercial purposes. In 2011, the airline announced to replace their McDonnell Douglas DC-9s and McDonnell Douglas MD-88s with Airbus, Boeing and Bombardier Aerospace aircraft. Soon, the same year, they placed an order to acquire 100 Boeing 737-900ER aircraft and defer the smaller narrow-body jets.

Delta's expansion strategy to further operate less-expensive used planes brought in an agreement to lease 88 of Boeing 717s which were originally acquired by Southwest Airlines. With this, they replaced DC-9s and 50-seat regional aircraft, including the CRJ-200. The last of DC-9 was retired in 2014. The airline was the last of US carriers to operate DC-9. With continued expansion plans, Delta further ordered 95 Airbus A220 aircraft and also became the first American carrier to order the said aircraft. The airlines have not been keen on acquiring wide-body aircraft, especially those that are ageing.

Delta Air Lines Baggage Allowance

It is essential to know about all the baggage allowance enabled by Delta Air Lines. For efficiency and comfort of the travellers, the airlines have initiated pertinent information on their Fly Delta App as well as have details of the same on their official website. Unlike other airlines that offer the first checked baggage to be processed for free, Delta adds a fee. With this, you will receive one free carry-on bag along with one personal item to carry onboard. The size of the baggage can be checked at their website as they all differ depending on the cabin class as well as the membership one might own. For the second standard checked bag which should be under 23 kg, you will need to pay USD 40. Depending on the domestic route or international route as well as the cabin class, the checked baggage allowance will change. The airline's app and website have a baggage calculator which will help you with getting an estimate of your luggage weight.

There are few exceptions for military baggage as well as Medallion members and Delta SkyMiles Amex Card members. They usually have no excess fee to pay for the baggage. Passengers flying with special and fragile items such as musical instruments, medical equipment and sporting equipment, you will require to notify the airline ahead of time. It would be best to carry them as cabin luggage to avoid any damage or misplacement. It is required that you carry cabin luggage that falls under the necessary dimension as well as weight stated by Delta Air Lines.

Delta Air Lines In-flight services

The airline offers about six diverse cabin service choices which include Delta One, Delta Premium Select, First Class, Comfort+, Main Cabin and Basic Economy. The availability of all the cabins varies from the airline route and the type of aircraft.

Delta One - Delta Air Lines' most exclusive cabin service can be found in Delta One. The in-flight services include a dedicated flight attendant to take you through the long-haul journey with the utmost ease. They are extensively available in long-haul international route flights as well as some domestic route flights. The seat is extremely relaxing, which aligns at 180-degree and can be converted into a flatbed. Plus, the airline offers special amenity kits to the passengers to help them reduce their baggage weight. The amenity kit includes eyeshadows, lotions, lip balms, socks and more.

Premium Select - The premium select cabins have comfortable reclining seats with features of fold-out footrest and leg-rest that can be adjusted. Besides great seating, the airline also offers the Tumi amenity kit to the premium select passengers. This also includes receiving priority during check-in, larger screens for entertainment and in-flight seasonal meals inspired by all the Delta destinations. You can also choose your in-flight beverages as a complimentary alcoholic beverage does accompany your seat.

First Class - In the first-class cabin of Delta Air Lines, there are personalized services offered to the passengers which include a dedicated flight attendant, extra legroom, 5.4-inch reclining seats and an 11-inch seatback screen. Along with this, the airline also provides various other perks such as pre-flight drink, a hearty snack and more. The seats are also hooked with power plugs to ensure that you stay connected to your work from everywhere. WiFi facilities are also available along with complimentary headphones, blankets and pillow. For medium and long-haul flights, the airline also offers meals on the flight along with hearty snacks.

Delta Comfort + - Delta Comfort + gives passengers affordable prices with some seating perks. The legroom and recline of the seats in the cabin are 50 per cent more than the standards set in the main cabin and economy class. The airline also offers the amenity kit along with a sleep kit for passengers travelling in long-haul flights to international destinations. Further, you can also avail premium snacks and meals on long-haul flights as well as some select domestic routes. Your meals will come with complimentary beer, wine and cocktails. In-seat power plug points are also available.

Main Cabin and Basic Economy - The main cabin and basic economy cabins have only slight variations that contain the standard amenities and in-flight services on Delta Air Lines. These include a standard recline seating which reclines up to 4 inches and has standard legroom and overhead bin space. While passengers of the economy class cannot select their seats before check-in, main cabin passengers have the benefit here.

Popular routes and top cities for Delta Air Lines

Over the years, Delta Air Lines has entered into joint ventures with quite a few airlines namely Aeromexico, Air France/KLM/Alitalia, Korean Air, LATAM Airlines Group, Virgin Atlantic, Virgin Australia and WestJet. Some of the top cities of Delta Air Lines include Sydney, Toronto, Beijing, Shanghai, Paris, Frankfurt, Munich, Dublin, Tokyo, Mexico City, Amsterdam, Madrid, London, New York City, Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Mumbai. They are also the only US carrier to charter flights to Accra, Dakar, Lagos, Stuttgart, Johannesburg, Copenhagen, Düsseldorf and Nice.

Why travel by Delta Air Lines?

Delta Air Lines is recognized as one of the best airlines in the US for its phenomenal connectivity and world-class services. Be it their ability to fly to a massive number of domestic routes as well as international routes, or their facilities such as web check-in, intimation about flight status, flight schedules of Delta Air Lines and more, they are ahead of the game. Delta Air Lines' in-flight services are exceptional thanks to the cabin upgradation that took place in 2015.