Organizational History and Current State of Affairs
This portion of the paper will include key information about Delta Air Lines, Inc. (Delta): (a) history; (b) culture; (c) important leaders over the years; (d) current products and service offerings: (e) target markets; and (f) methods of product and service delivery.
History
This section describes the history of Delta. The company was founded in Macon, Georgia, in 1924, as the world’s first crop-dusting service, Huff-Daland Dusters. The company moved to Monroe, Louisiana, in 1925. In 1928, field manager C. E. Woolman and two partners purchased the service and renamed it Delta Air Service after the Mississippi Delta region it served. Delta was the first international mail and passenger route on the west coast of South America. Delta operated its first passenger flights over route stretching from Dallas, Texas to Jackson, Mississippi, via Shreveport and Monroe, Louisiana. Also, Delta was awarded a US Postal Service contract in 1934 to fly from Fort Worth to Charleston via Atlanta (Hoover’s, 2011). In 1941, Delta relocated to Atlanta. Woolman became the president in 1945 and he managed the company until his death in 1966 (Delta, 2011).
Delta offered its first night service in 1935, using the Stinson Model A; the first Delta aircraft with two pilots. Douglas DC-2 and DC-3 service was introduced and the introduction of flight attendants, called “stewardesses,” added to flight crews. Delta contributed to the war effort by modifying 1,000 plus aircraft, over-hauling engines and instruments and training Army pilots and mechanics. The company was recognized in 1945 by the National Safety Council, for more than 300 million passenger miles and 10 years of flights without a passenger or crew fatality. In 1946, Delta was recognized for more than one-half billion passenger miles without a fatality (Delta,