Strategic Analysis of Delta Airlines

Delta Airlines in a major American airline company headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. The company was founded on May 30, 1924. They operate as an extensive domestic and international network. Delta currently operates a fleet of more than 700 aircraft and they employ approximately 80,000 people. In 2011 they were the world’s largest airline in terms of fleet size. Delta Airlines is a very successful company. Part of what makes them so successful is expansion, making good decisions in route selection and hubs location, being service oriented, having a strong operation management, being reactive in terms of prices, and offering low fares.

While Frontier and Delta are both popular choices of airlines for Americans, Delta has become more of a household name because of their friendlier service, more comfortable cabins, and their limited extras fees. Frontier airline still is a worthy competitor by being cheaper, but they also have many added on fees for things that are free with Delta. Overall, Delta knows how to take better care of their customers and make sure everyone is satisfied.

What makes Delta airlines unique is their participation within charitable groups. The employees at Delta Airlines list as one of the top donors of blood to the American Red Cross (Delta, 2016). The employees of Delta also partnered up with a Humanitarian group to help build homes for families as well as volunteered their time through community sponsored events that Delta has had. United way has also been funded by Delta (Delta, 2016). These are just some of the charitable things that Delta has contributed to. Their client base it simple; meaning there client based is for anyone who chooses to use their services. They have a variety of options for their customers when purchasing tickets such as flying economy class, business class and or first class. Each class comes with a certain advantage such as flying first class, you have more seat space and along with accelerated check in and baggage handling. Delta Airlines like others have many competitors. One of their main competitors who is trying to thrive within the industry is

Delta Airlines is the largest airline carrier on the Atlantic Coast. In terms of scheduled passengers carried they were world’s largest airline with 277.6 billion in 2013. Also the second largest

The SO category suggests three alternatives. The first alternative is to include airlines in India and China under the Sky Team alliance. By doing this, Delta can penetrate into untapped emerging markets and increase its presence. The reason we suggest India and China is because these countries were amongst the lowest to be affected by recession and Delta doesn’t have its prevalence in these regions (http://www.economist.com/node/15172941). Secondly, Delta can capitalize on creating its hubs in India strategically in the long run after gaining access to these markets. The airline will benefit from larger population in both the countries and the government in India encourages Foreign Direct Investment in comparison to China. The third strategy promote business traveler programs in the U.S. Business travelers spend more on their trips and are not as

This report provides an examinaion of the current structure, performance, stragergy and management of Delta Airlines, along with an industry analysis of the airline industry. The report uses current and past financial and statistical data for the company along with other up to date material to determine Delta's current market position and future potential.

According to delta.com, Delta Air Lines began in 1924 as a crop dusting operation and has since then grown into one of the world’s largest airline competitors. With it’s social and environmental dedication, Delta prides itself on the service of it’s community and family. Being one of the world’s largest global competitors in the airline industry, Delta has made great strides but not without it’s share of setbacks.

Every major company has internal strengths and weaknesses and external opportunities and threats. Delta Airlines biggest strength, in my opinion, is that they are the strongest and most sought after airline in Atlanta, and as I stated earlier Atlanta is one of the biggest airports in the United States. Customers prefer Delta over any other airline in Atlanta, so this means they have a very strong customer base in Atlanta. Delta has more than 700 airplanes in its fleet, and most of these planes are Boeing 700. The airline has over 5,000 flights per day.

American Airlines Group (AAG) vision is to become the largest and most profitable airline in the world. In 2013 a merger with U.S. Airways was announced and that vision can now become possible. The merger has opened many doors and provides an extensive operational network. They are committed in providing the highest quality service to every individual in the world. American Airlines provides continuous efforts of modernization of their fleets as well as maintaining a position as the largest air carrier in the world. Even with the competition intensifying, there are continuous efforts to distinguish themselves by offering three levels of flying class services. With the different types of flying classes, American Airlines Group

Delta merged with Northeast Airlines, began flying routes from Atlanta to London, and managed steady operation and growth post deregulation despite many other airlines filing for bankruptcy.

This proposed merger would create the largest airline in the United States by market share, with a combined 21.2% of the domestic market using pre-merger market share levels (see Figure 1). The proposed merger would also bring the total number of major domestic airlines down to four: Delta, United, Southwest and the proposed new airline. These major domestic carriers would combine to control roughly 69% of the market, a dominant position.

5. How does the merger between Delta and Virgin Airlines impact the company as a whole? (Outside research required).

Through similar mergers in the 1980s and 1990s, Delta extended its reach into trans-continental and international markets (Rivkin 7-8). According to its stated position today,

Developing a strategic performance plan for a company is only the first step. The plan must then be implemented and after a short period of time it must then be evaluated. This evaluation is key in determining if the strategic plan is not only effective but also efficient. After being presented with yearly data for the top three competitors, Delta, Southwest, and United Airlines, of the US airline industry, it was my goal to develop comparative performance metrics to find out how if the companies strategies are efficient in a financial standpoint. While I calculated all of the required metrics, only a few stood out to me as useful when evaluating the companies. Some of the key performance metrics that I computed are revenue per employee, accounts receivable turnover, current ratio, and return on assets.

In less than twenty years, the global industry has gone through tremendous change. Several airlines had gone out of business that had been on top of the industry for years. One of the remarkable changes had been airline alliances. The case focuses on the airline industry and how airlines are forming alliances and joint ventures. It then introduces the partner firms Air France KLM , and Delta . Air France KLM had over 25 collaborative agreements with other carriers and was a founding member of Skyteam, one of the leading airline groups. Air France KLM and Delta Airlines formed revenue