Timeline
Through the Decades
Explore Delta's history and achievements and discover how the airline went from dusting crops to serving over 320 destinations on six continents.
Choose a decade:
1920s - Delta begins crop dusting and flying passengers
1925 The Huff Daland Dusters crop-dusting operation, which formed the roots for Delta, begins in Macon, Ga. This was the first commercial aerial agricultural company in existence. For more information, see Founding.
1925 Huff Daland Duster's headquarters moves to Monroe, La. Huff Daland's 18 planes are the largest privately-owned fleet in the world. Operations range south to Florida, north to Arkansas, and west to California and Mexico.
1927 Huff Daland extends dusting services to Peru. Operates the first international mail and passenger route on the west coast of South America (Lima to Talara) for Pan Am subsidiary Peruvian Airways in 1928.
1928 C.E. Woolman leads movement to buy Huff Daland Dusters. Renamed “Delta Air Service” for the Mississippi River Delta region it served. D.Y. Smith, president; C.E. Woolman, vice president. For more information, see Founding.
1929 Delta operates first passenger flights over route stretching from Dallas, Texas to Jackson, Mississippi, via Shreveport and Monroe, Louisiana. Travel Air S-6000-B airplanes carry five passengers and one pilot.