Whether it’s for sadness, or for joy, we’re pretty sure there were a few tears this month in Delta’s finance department as they agreed to part with $2.6billion dollars across two initiatives in as many weeks. The first, starting in March sees Delta Air Lines commit a grand sum of $1 billion over the next 10 years on its journey to mitigate all emissions from its global business going forward.
The airline has joined the ranks of easyJet and JetBlue to state they will invest in reducing carbon emmissions through driving innovation, advancing clean air travel technologies, accelerating the reduction of waste and establishing new projects to mitigate the balance of emissions.
“There is no substitute for the power that travel has to connect people, which our world needs today more than ever before. As we connect customers around the globe, it is our responsibility to deliver on our promise to bring people together and ensure the utmost care for our environment,” said Ed Bastian, Delta’s CEO. “The time is now to accelerate our investments and establish an ambitious commitment that the entire Delta team will deliver.”
But it isn’t just the environment receiving Delta’s love. Delta Air Lines last week paid out more than $1 billion in profit sharing, “celebrating the outstanding accomplishments made possible by its employees around the world.” In total, $1.6 billion was put in to the profit sharing pool – a record for a US-based company – translating to a 16.7 percent payout for eligible employees.
At a profit sharing celebration this morning in the airline’s hometown of Atlanta, Delta leaders unveiled another symbol of the company’s appreciation: a custom aircraft livery featuring all 90,000 employee names, alongside a message that the aircraft is “dedicated to the world’s best employees and customers.”
The customised simple “thank you” message featured on this Airbus A321 aircraft was designed, produced and installed in-house by Delta staff. The process – which involved 48 custom decal panels – took more than a week to complete at the Delta TechOps print shop and hangar in Atlanta.
It seems almost ridiculous the airline would go to this extreme, considering as passengers of the aviation industry we should be thanking pioneers like Delta for going above and beyond to address the deep concerns about the environmental impacts business are having as well as their decision to continue to invest in their people and their communities.
We applaud the airline – which also won Design Airline of the year North America for the last three years at TheDesignAir Awards – for basically investing in everything, from the passenger experience to the environment, and the staff that make it. We wish them another fruitful year ahead.
The Big ‘Celebratory’ Picture
TheDesignAir 
Delta’s actions seem neither ridiculous nor extreme. This could have just been about a company doing the right thing for once, instead it just took a cynical crap on Delta’s good deed for no reason.