As one of the world’s largest airlines, Delta came from humble beginnings as a crop duster trying to eradicate the scourge of the South, the “evil” boll weevil. The Photo Vault today looks back at how this small operation helped shape Atlanta into the hub of commerce and culture that it is today.
First based in Macon and then Monroe, La., Delta went from spreading pesticides in 1924 to carrying passengers just four years later. Founder Collett Woolman spent time in Peru establishing crop-dusting and passenger service there. When he returned to the states, he bought the company in 1928 and renamed it Delta Air Service, with passenger service between Dallas and Jackson, Miss. The name Delta, referring to the Mississippi River region, was suggested by Catherine Fitzgerald, a secretary who later would rise to the rank of an executive in the company.
By 1930, Delta expanded passenger service east to Atlanta and west to Fort Worth. On June 12, 1941, it established corporate headquarters in Atlanta, the fastest growing city in the South.
The early days were rocky because the field of competition was large and safety wasn’t regulated. Delta’s lack of success in winning a commercial airmail contract—the bread and butter of any aspiring air service—jeopardized its early existence, however, and the company was forced to suspend passenger service for a time.
A reprieve came for Delta came when the U.S. Congress enacted the Air Mail Act of 1934. Woolman secured a low-bid contract for the airmail service route between Dallas and Charleston, South Carolina, via Atlanta.
Delta continually upgraded its fleet, setting industry standards for safety and comfort. The company officially became Delta Air Lines in 1945 and played a crucial role in the rise of post-war Atlanta as an international city and commercial powerhouse. That same year, the company was recognized by National Safety Council for more than 300 million passenger miles and 10 years of flight without a passenger or crew fatality.
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.
Today Delta Air Lines, Inc. operates over 5,000 flights every day. The airline’s hub at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport is the world’s busiest airport by passenger traffic (over 91 million passengers per year) and number of landings and takeoffs.
Delta is the sixth-oldest operating airline by foundation date, and the oldest airline still operating in the United States.
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