The Evolution Of An Airline

The Delta Air Lines story as told through route maps

This is Delta Air Lines’ route map in 1968. The routes west were a relatively new pattern at the time. The hub-and-spoke concept was starting to take place, with Atlanta at the center. All maps and images are from my Pinterest collection.

Today, kids, we’re going to talk about one of my favorite subjects — airlines! This might bore some of you to tears, but I find it quite fascinating. And it’s mostly pictures!

You might find it interesting, too, if you’ve ever wondered why there’s not much of choice in airlines when the flight attendant says, “we know you have a choice of airlines when you fly!”

There once were probably 25–30 smaller airlines plying the U.S. skies in the 1960s. I’ve never stopped to count, but that might be a fun thing to do sometime. For me, anyway.

Airlines have ancestries too. For now, we’re going to look at how Delta became the behemoth that it is today through route maps of the airlines it swallowed…er, acquired, or merged with. It’s the story of how some 15 airlines came together as one.

A Little Background on Delta

Delta began as a crop dusting operation, founded in Macon, Georgia, then moved to Monroe, Louisiana. The name was coined from the Mississippi Delta region. It began carrying passengers in 1929 and was incorporated in 1930. They moved their headquarters again in 1941 to Atlanta, along with the bulk of their operations.