An aerial photo of Atlanta International Airport in the 1930s.
On this date in 1930, Delta Air Lines started service with a Travel Air S-6000-B with five passengers to Atlanta International Airport (ATL) from Birmingham, Alabama. At the time, the ticket would only cost your $9.80 (which is about $150 in today’s dollars). Delta moved their headquarters to Atlanta in 1941 and has been there since. During their time in Atlanta, they have met a lot of milestones:
* Early pioneer of the hub-and-spoke air traffic system, starting in Atlanta.
* First jet service in Atlanta (to New York on September 18, 1959).* First service to Europe from Atlanta in 1964, in interchange operations with Pan Am. (Pan Am crews flew the international segments).
* First nonstop service from Atlanta to California (1961).
* First nonstop trans-Atlantic service from Atlanta (to London-Gatwick in April 1978).
* First airline in the world to board one million passengers in one city in one month (in Atlanta in August 1979).
* First airline to board 2 million passengers in one city in one month (in Atlanta in 1997).
* First commercial flight to land on the new fifth runway at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, hailed as ’œThe Most Important Runway in America’ when it opened (May 27, 2006).
Spending 80 years flying passengers around the world from Atlanta is pretty impressive. When flying into Atlanta, it is quite obvious the impact that Delta has there. Cheers to another 80+ years of Delta flying out of Atlanta!
Interesting Stuff:
* Photo of the “Fly Delta Jets” sign I took last time I was in Atlanta
* Review of Delta flight from ATL to SEA
* Additional Travel Air photos
* Photos of ATL through the years
Source: Delta Air Lines Blog Image: ATL airport Flickr
Delta Air Line's DC-3, Ship 41 in flight
The DC-3 is a classic. It was the workhorse of commercial aviation. Delta Air Lines, via their blog, shared the restoration of Ship 41, which was the second DC-3 delivered to the airline. She entered service in December 24, 1941 and served a reliable 18 years with Delta before being sold to North Central Airlines.
DC-3 ended up serving with a lot of different airlines and in 1990, Delta started to make a big effort to track down any of the first five DC-3’s delivered. Ship 41, which was registered N29PR, had been flying cargo for Air Puerto Rico and in 1993, Delta bought the plane. The DC-3 was flown back to Atlanta for restoration.
When restoring the DC-3, Delta wanted to make sure the cockpit was updated, without taking away the plane’s history. Updated communication and navigation equipment were installs, but located in discrete areas of the cockpit. The cabin was remade with the original patterns and fabric.
She last flew at an airshow in spring 2005, but has been grounded since. If you are in the Atlanta area you can check out Ship 41 at the Delta Air Transport Heritage Museum and if you can’t make it over there, check out their website with many photos and a few videos or you can check our their Flickr.
I love the DC-3 and the Delta livery on it so much, this airplane is actually in my model collection.
Image: Delta Blog
Surprisingly Southwest Airlines made bank off fees in 2009
According to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS), US airlines made $7.8 billion in fees in 2009. This is a 42% increase over 2008. BTS says in a release “the airlines collected $2.7 billion in baggage fees, $2.4 billion from reservation change fees, and $2.7 billion from other ancillary fees, such as pet transportation fees and frequent flyer award program mileage sales.”
Delta brought in the most money with $1.65 billion in fees and surprisingly Southwest was fourth. Southwest might not charge for bags, but they do charge for other services like pets, unaccompanied minors and an early check-in option. Even before Spirit Airlines started charging for carry-ons, 21% of their total operating revenue came from fees — the highest of any other airline.
$7.8 billion is a lot of money. Passengers keep complaining about fees, but it is obvious that they keep paying them. I am not going to be surprised if more creative fees start showing up in the next few years.
Source: USA Today Image: TVL1970
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Finnair MD-11 (OH-LGB) taking off in the moon light
It is that time again where I have quite a few blogs I never got around to blogging and they aren’t really timely anymore. Instead of just hitting delete, I want to still share the stories with you folks. Here they are:
* Photos and Video of a United Airlines Airbus A319 that had a landing gear failure. (via Flight Global)
* Get free cookies and toothbrushes at airports. (via USAToday)
* Delta Air Lines converts airports from Northwest Airlines to Delta. (via Delta Blog)
* An Antonov AN-124 flew a mobile Air Traffic Control unit to Haiti. (via Aviation Week)
* Qantas Airlines is getting rid of some of their business class. (via Aviation Week)
* Finnair has stopped flying the MD-11. Which is a total shame! (via Things in the Sky & Cranky Flier)
* People calling for a ban on pets being allowed in passenger cabins. (via The Independent)
* Google maps now showing live flights in Europe. (via tnooz)
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Image: KalleA
"Deltalina" who stars in Delta's safety videos says "no fighting on the plane"
Stories of passengers getting all riled up on a flight are not too rare. However, having two flight attendants getting into a fight and canceling a flight are pretty rare.
Two flight attendants, with some obvious issues, were aboard Delta Connection (run by Pinnacle Airlines) flight 887 from Rochester, NY to Atlanta and decided to get into a fight.
We aren’t talking about using mere words, one of the passengers, Steve Mazur witnessed that the two flight attendants, “got into a fistfight on the plane.” The Captain wanted nothing of this, but instead of just kicking off the flight attendants, everyone on the plane was told they needed to get off.
A spokesperson for Pinnacle Airlines states there was no physical contact made between the flight attendants, but only a “verbal disagreement.” Either way, the flight attendants will not be working until this is all sorted out.
Delta worked with the kicked off passengers to arrange other flights to their final destination.
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Source: AJC