Delta Air Lines is a major U.S. air carrier, transporting passengers and cargo around the United States and international destinations in Central and South America, the Middle East, Africa, and Europe. The company’s roots date back to 1924, when the aircraft manufacturer Huff-Daland Aero started a subsidiary called Huff Dalan Dusters to operate a crop-dusting service. In 1928, Huff Dalan Dusters underwent a transformation into Delta Air Service, thereby transitioning from agricultural to passenger services. Subsequently, Delta was able to acquire Western Airlines in 1987 and Northwest Airlines in 2008 before coming to its present form. Currently, Delta Air Lines is headquartered at the
, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, which transported more than 104 million
in 2023 to more than 1,000 destinations with its Delta connection carriers, and Partner Airlines.
Delta - operating performance
The airline’s growth in providing passenger air transportation services can be seen in the
increasing operating revenue over the last years. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. airline saw a huge drop in revenue in 2020: from 47 billion to only 12.8 billion U.S. dollars. Delta’s first signs of recovery were observed in its operations a year later, and since then, the company has recorded positive figures. Particularly, the operating revenue of Delta even peaked at approximately 58 billion U.S. dollars in 2023. In that same period, the airline had a
seat capacity of more than 272 billion available seat miles, and a
passenger load factor of 85 percent.
Sustainability in Delta Airlines
The phenomenon of global warming is seen as an important threat to the future well-being of the earth. In order to mitigate the adverse effects of climate change, various economic actors, organizations, and individuals have taken measures to attain the requisite deduction by 2050. This applies to the entire aviation sector, but achieving carbon neutrality in aviation poses a significant challenge since the industry heavily relies on consuming jet fuel to power the aircraft engines. One approach to reducing carbon dioxide emissions in aviation is to utilize
sustainable aviation fuels, significantly reducing the industry's greenhouse gas emissions. However, in order to achieve this, 65 percent of total fuel requirements must be SAF by 2050, which
amounts to 449 billion liters. In 2023,
Delta Air Lines emitted approximately 53.3 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent. The company's major mitigation strategy is to increase the use of SAF on its flights. As of February 2023,
Delta Air Lines was the second-largest SAF purchaser, with 3.86 billion liters.
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