Special Report


The Delta story, two years on


Peter Wilander, md on-board services at Delta, talks to Jo Austin about the changes and challenges of forming the largest commercial airline in the world


OBH Can you discuss the changes that have taken place at Delta over the last couple of years since your merger with Northwest? PW We took a careful, phased approach to integrating the two airlines to protect and improve the travel experience for our customers while quickly realising new benefits for our employees and shareholders. Delta invested $500 million to integrate Delta and Northwest and worked quickly to harmonise products and services to ensure consistency across the brand and deliver synergies and cost efficiencies. This included rebranding 247 airports worldwide and repainting of more than 250 Northwest aircraft into Delta colours, as well as the integration of the two airlines’ frequent flyer programmes with more than 74 million members. On board products and services on domestic


and international flights were harmonised by June last year. Improvements on international


62 www.onboardhospitality.com


flights for Economy customers included free wine and beer as well as an upgraded hot breakfast on flights over 3,800 miles. Delta’s international Business menus featuring entrees designed by celebrity chef Michelle Bernstein and wines selected by master sommelier, Andrea Robinson, became the airline’s standard offering. One of the most significant changes that the merger facilitated was the signing in May 2009 of a transatlantic joint venture agreement between Delta and Air France KLM. This agreement combined the JV agreements that Northwest had held with KLM for more than a decade and Delta’s JV agreement with Air France. With the inclusion of Alitalia in July 2010, the JV now comprises around 250 daily flights and represents 27% of total transatlantic capacity. Under the terms of this agreement, the partners jointly operate their transatlantic routes, thereby sharing revenues and costs.


How has this changed the way you work? Both airlines had different ways of working and intensive training programmes were implemented to re-train pre-merger Northwest employees. By the end of last year, more than 7,600 pre-merger Northwest flight attendants had completed training on crew resource management and emergency, security and medical procedures along with Delta’s history, vision, values and customer service philosophy. In total, more than 16,000 pre-merger Northwest pilots, flight attendants, Sky Club representatives and gate and ticketing agents began wearing Delta’s designer uniforms. The merger also enabled Delta to take advantage of the increased flexibility offered by the combined fleet, to right-size capacity to match demand and maximise the profitability of


Enjoying the Delta onboard experience


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