Delta Air Lines Maryland

Delta Air Lines is a United States airline that operates an expansive domestic and international network that spans across North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, the Middle East and the Caribbean. Delta lands in over 460 destinations in 99 countries across 5 continents and is the only major U.S. carrier that flies to Africa. With its headquarters located in Atlanta, Georgia, Delta employs about 51,300 people.

Delta operates hubs at Salt Lake City International Airport, Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport, and New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport. Delta's hub at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport is the largest and busiest airline hub in the world. The airline has large operations in many cities including Boston, Cancun, Los Angeles, Orlando and Columbus. To expand the company, transatlantic service is scheduled to start in 2008 from Salt Lake City to Paris.

Delta encourages passengers to fly on their airline because of the service and reliability of their flights. Delta offers in-flight entertainment, which includes in-seat video screens and a docking capability for all Apple iPod portable music and video players. BusinessElite is Delta's international business class and allows passengers to sit back in 160-degree reclining seats and receive complimentary meals, refreshments and alcohol.

This airlines also offers a frequent flyer program called SkyMiles which was created in 1981. This program is designed to allow members to receive rewards for every mile they travel with Delta Airlines.

Delta provides scheduled air transportation for passengers and cargo throughout the US and around the world. It also is the founding member of the Sky Team international alliance, which is a global airline alliance that provides customers with extensive worldwide destinations, flights and services.

The airlines carried approximately 119 million passengers in 2005 and became the second-largest airline in the world behind American Airlines. However, Delta has come across financial struggles. In early 2004, the company attempted to avoid bankruptcy and announced that it would reconstruct itself cutting jobs and expanding the Atlanta operations by 100 new flights. Then by mid-2004 the airline announced that it would be closing its fourth busiest hub, Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, but didn't physically close it until January 31, 2005. To further avoid filing bankruptcy, Delta pilots agreed to take a 32.5% hourly pay cut and also agreed on changes in work rules, which granted the company efficiencies in staff scheduling.

After several more attempts to avoid bankruptcy, Delta failed and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on September 14, 2005 for the first time in the company's history. Delta blamed that high labor costs and extremely high jet fuel prices as the reason behind the company's financial downfall. By the time Delta filed this, it was already $20.5 billion in debt and of that, $10 billion had accumulated between January 2001 and September 2005.

Slowly, Delta Airlines was able to emerge from bankruptcy by April 30, 2007. Since then, Delta announced a partnership with US Helicopter, who will provide service from John F. Kennedy International Airport to helipads in Manhattan. It also has made other several advancements in order to regain any customers lost during its bankruptcy.

In the past, Delta airlines have teamed up with national organizations in order to raise money for causes including The Breast Cancer Research Foundation, Habitat for Humanity and The Conservation Fund.

Delta has created a plane that supports breast cancer research called the Delta Pink Plane. Passengers who board these planes can enjoy pink drinks during the month of October in the hopes of raising funds and awareness for breast cancer research. The goal of their Force for Global Good "Flying Pink" is to fund The Breast Cancer Research Foundation (BCRF) for an entire year. Passengers who choose to join the Force for Global Good can receive Delta's signature Pink Lemonade for $2 on all domestic and some international flights and 100% of the proceeds will benefit BCRF.

Habitat for Humanity and Delta Airlines team up in order to build villages in some third world countries. In November 2007, Delta will travel to Mumbai, India to begin work on a village of homes and they will invite a select group of employees to join them. September 2007 will give Delta its first-ever SkyMiles Global Good auction to give customers a chance to join the company on the trip to Mumbai to build these houses. The money from this auction would be giving to the Habitat for Humanity Foundation.

To help protect the special places that Delta flies to, its Force for Global Good has partnered with the Conservation Fund to plant trees that will help offset carbon emissions.