The company has its roots in Huff Daland Dusters, which was founded in 1924, and through a number of mergers and acquisitions became the company it is today.
Delta operates Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport as its chief hub, as well as hubs in Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky International Airport in Hebron, Kentucky, near Cincinnati, Ohio and Salt Lake City International Airport in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Delta is based in Atlanta, Georgia, where it moved its headquarters in 1941.
Delta Air Lines currently employs more than 60000 people, and services 428 cities in 76 countries. Among the cities and places they serve: Luis Munoz Marin International Airport in San Juan, Puerto Rico, various destinations in Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean, Chatrapati Shivaji International Airport in Mumbai, India, many European cities, Guarulhos International Airport in Sao Paulo, Brazil and Narita, Japan's New Tokyo International Airport.
Delta operates several airline brands. The mainline Delta brand serves long-haul, high-volume flights and most international services. Delta Connection is Delta's commuter service; in addition to Delta subsidiaries ComAir and Atlantic Southeast Airlines, Delta Connection service is also operated by Atlantic Coast Airlines in the northeast and mid-Atlantic states, by Chautauqua Airlines in Florida, and by SkyWest Airlines in the mountain states. Under a code share agreement, American Eagle operates Delta Connection service out of Los Angeles. Short-haul, non-reserved services between major Northeastern U.S. cities are operated under the Delta Shuttle brand. Song is a no-frills, low-cost brand connecting northeastern cities with Florida, Puerto Rico, and the desert southwest.
Delta is part of the SkyTeam alliance, and code shares with SNCF French Rail to rail stations in France.
On the morning of August 2, 1985, Delta Air Lines Flight 191, which was on a Fort Lauderdale-Dallas-Los Angeles route, crashed at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, killing 133 of the 164 passengers on board. The crash would later become the subject of a television movie.
On August 31, 1988, Delta Air Lines Flight 1411, which was bound from Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport near Dallas and Fort Worth, Texas to Salt Lake City International Airport in Salt Lake City, Utah, crashed after take-off from Dallas-Fort Worth Airport.
If Operation Bojinka had not been discovered after an apartment fire in Manila, Philippines, then the airline might have lost one MD-11 over the South China Sea flying a Seoul, South Korea-Taipei, Taiwan-Bangkok, Thailand route on January 21, 1995.
Delta operated its last MD-11 flight on January 1, 2004, Flight 56 departing Tokyo Narita at 4:45pm for Atlanta, which arrived at 3:20pm. This concludes MD-11 service in the fleet, with Delta having retired the other three-holer, the Boeing 727, in 2003. Its entire active fleet is now comprised of twinjets.
| Type | Number |
| Boeing 737-200 | 52 |
| Boeing 737-300 | 26 |
| Boeing 737-800 | 71 |
| Boeing 757-200 | 121 |
| Boeing 767-200 | 15 |
| Boeing 767-300 | 28 |
| Boeing 767-300ER | 59 |
| Boeing 767-400ER | 21 |
| Boeing 777-200 | 8 |
| MD-11 | 14 |
| MD-88 | 120 |
| MD-90 (DC-9) | 16 |
| ATR-72 | 19 |
| Bombardier Canadair CRJ-100/200 | 226 |
| Bombardier Canadair CRJ-700 | 33 |
Other facts of interest