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Section I: Introduction to the Organization

In 1924 Collet Everman Woolman, a pilot and agricultural scientist together with a partner, created Huff Daland Dusters, the first crop dusting service. In 1928 Woolman decided to separate from Huff Daland Dusters and established Delta Air Service to continue the crop-dusting service. The company began to expand by obtaining air mail agreements, which led the company to launch passenger services in 1929 between Dallas and Jackson, Mississippi. Soon after it added routes in Atlanta, Georgia and Charleston, South Carolina. In 1930 the U.S government granted the airline an airmail contract that helped the company stay in business during a short but costly interruption in the airmail contract system in 1934. During World War II through a contract between the company and the War Department Delta committed itself to transport troops and supplies and In 1945 Delta resumed its civilian services and joined an era of expansion and competition that was new for the airline industry. After the death of Delta’s founder, Woolman, in 1967 Delta merged with Delaware Airlines and officially became Delta Air Lines Inc (Gay, 2019).

In the 1990s the company implemented an innovative business strategy in order to stay competitive in the airline industry. As a result, in 2000 Delta reached a net income of over $1 billion and held a record 117 million passengers. Moving into the new century, Delta had expanded its route network to operate in 221 cities in 48 states, and an extra 118 cities in 47 overseas countries becoming one of the of the major and most successful airlines in the United States (Gay, 2019).

Today Delta Air Lines headquarter is in Atlanta, Georgia and Its other major centers are located in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Detroit, and Salt Lake City, Utah. For Delta Air Lines, international travel, and business trips, are the two more profitable sources of revenues. Even though Delta competes with United Airline Holdings and American Airline Groups for international and domestic travel business, for over a decade the airline has been very profitable every year. In 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic the airline offered over 5,000 daily departures and more than 15,000 joined departures and served approximately 200 million passengers, whereas United Airline Holdings reported serving nearly 163 million passengers and American Airline Group served about 215 million passengers (Koenig, 2021).

Before the pandemic Delta portrayed itself as the world’s leading airline by profits and as the business’s most lucrative carrier. It reported pre-tax income of over $5 billion in the five years through 2019. However due to the global Covid-19 pandemic the company experienced a quarterly loss of $755 and $12.4 billion in losses for all of 2020 (Gale Group, 2021).

Section II: Statement of the Problem

Before the Covid-19 outbreak in early 2020, which resulted in shutdowns worldwide, Delta was the leading airline in the industry with $47 billion dollars in revenue which was an increase of $3 billion dollars from the previous year (Delta, 2020). However, the pandemic was not something anyone could predict, especially the worldwide shutdowns that would ensue. As a result, Delta found themselves hemorrhaging profits with a 93 percent drop in customers and a pre-tax loss of 2.9 billion dollars from the months January 2020-June 2020, resulting in the need to file for specialized loans that would help keep them afloat until a solution to the situation was figured out. After years of continual growth and expansion of travel, Delta couldn’t foresee that their industry could all of a sudden become irrelevant, with more than 80 million people infected resulting in 1.7 million deaths during the year. Delta was now at the mercy of the medical field developing a solution. Delta needs to figure out a way to overcome the adversity of travel restrictions worldwide, major financial losses, and implement new safety measures for their passengers to get them back into the skies.

Section III: Research Question

With travel being at an all time high before Covid-19, how will Delta overcome the financial hardship as well as the safety for travel concerns to get the company back to their success?

Section IV: Hypothesis

Given the reputation Delta has created, they will be able to recover from COVID-19 financial deficits and implement the proper improvements needed in order to gain back the trust of its most frequent flyers and daily travelers alike.

Section V: Research Significance

This research project is important because it will give an in-depth view of how COVID-19 has had a powerful impact on Delta Air Lines with many unknowns, and provide some insight into how the airline can overcome these downfalls to get back to their normal operating level and create an even safer environment for a better tomorrow.

This will also highlight some of their weaknesses such as planning and development prior, that have possibly created an greater overall effect to the COVID-19. This research project will shed light on how the weaknesses covered can be improved upon to improve business practices overall, as well as the safety and health for their travelers. By having an understanding of the antecedent, and the corrections made, this will allow a new norm and provide a guide for a more successful operation while preparing them for any future threats.

Section VI: Purpose

The purpose of conducting this research will afford Delta the opportunity to strengthen their weaknesses and turn them into new found strengths. Delta Airlines’ purpose is to better people’s standards of living. Their mission statement is “We- Delta’s employees, customers, and community partners together form a force for positive local and global change, dedicated to bettering standards of living and the environment where we and our customers live and work” (Team,2021). Delta’s mission statement shows that no matter what is thrown at them, they are going to power through, and Delta is doing just that. After suffering a $1.2 billion dollar loss, Delta’s CEO, Ed Bastian says now their ticket sales have been stronger than ever (A $1.2 Billion, 2021). This research shows that through something as devastating as a global pandemic, Delta will be able to recover from this life changing event. Airline operations are one small step for the world getting back to normal.

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Section VII: Data Collection/Research Methods

Information on Delta airlines will be through different platforms. Such platforms that will be used in obtaining information will be business articles, business journals, and financial records. Using business articles and financials will allow us to see what is really happening within Delta’s business. This will help us better grasp and understand how their business is doing based upon their business methods and strategies. This will also help us obtain numbers and information for the periods of pre-pandemic, highest spikes during the pandemic, and the pandemic currently. Once the data is collected, we will be able to see if our hypothesis is accurate.

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1-2 paragraphs long.