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Delta Air Lines is a major airline that flies passengers and cargo around the world.
Delta Air Lines is one of the biggest airlines in the world, and its business is simple: it sells seats on airplanes. People buy tickets to get where they need to go—for work, for vacation, or to see family. Delta flies them there on a fleet of hundreds of planes, and it also carries cargo in the belly of those planes for businesses that need to ship things fast.
The airline makes money from several kinds of customers. Regular travelers buy coach and first-class tickets. Companies sign deals to send their employees on Delta. Delta also sells a premium product: its loyalty program and co-branded credit cards with American Express. That partnership is a quiet powerhouse—Delta earns money when cardholders spend, even if they never board a plane. Delta also has a maintenance business that fixes planes for other airlines, and it owns a refinery in Pennsylvania that makes jet fuel, which is unusual for an airline. Airlines are a tough business. Fuel is a huge cost, and so are planes, pilots, and airport gates. A single bad storm or a spike in oil prices can wreck a quarter's profit. Delta's edge is that it flies to more places than almost anyone and has built a reputation for running on time and treating passengers decently. It focuses on hubs in Atlanta, Detroit, Minneapolis, and Salt Lake City, which gives it a strong grip on routes across the country and to Europe.
Delta came close to collapse in 2005 and filed for bankruptcy, then merged with Northwest Airlines in 2008. That merger made it a global giant. Today the company uses its cash to buy new planes, pay down debt, and return money to shareholders through dividends and buybacks. It recently ordered dozens of new Airbus jets to replace older planes and keep growing, a bet that people will keep paying to fly.
Saved answer · last researched 21 Oct 2026