[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 85 (Friday, June 18, 2004)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1172]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           COMMEMORATION OF DELTA AIRLINE'S 75TH ANNIVERSARY

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. JOHN L. MICA

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, June 17, 2004

  Mr. MICA. Mr. Speaker, it is my pleasure to congratulate Delta 
Airlines on the 75th anniversary of the airline's first passenger 
flight, June 17th, 1929.
  Delta has a long and storied history in aviation development in 
America. Starting as a small crop-dusting business in Monroe, Louisiana 
under the name of Huff Daland Dusters in 1923, C.E. Woolman and his 
associates acquired it in 1928. A company secretary came up with the 
name Delta after the airline's location near the Mississippi River's 
outlet to the Gulf of Mexico. By 1929 the company had its first 
passenger plane. Seventy-five years ago today, a Delta Airlines plane 
carried passengers for the first time from Monroe to Dallas, Texas.
  While competitors faltered during the Great Depression, Delta 
survived by teaching flying as well as providing maintenance and hangar 
rentals to other airlines at its Monroe base. Delta won a bid for a 
federal postal contract in 1934, giving the airline a route from 
Charleston, South Carolina to Fort Worth, Texas. As the airline grew 
Delta split the route into two parts--eastbound to Charleston and 
westbound to Dallas and Fort Worth, later linking them up in Atlanta. 
With this route and passenger service as reliable sources of income, 
Delta grasped the opportunity to evolve into one of the most successful 
airline companies in the United States. Today Delta serves 209 domestic 
cities in 46 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the 
U.S. Virgin Islands, as well as 48 international cities in 32 
countries. As Chairman of the Subcommittee on Aviation, I am pleased to 
recognize Delta's great contribution to the transportation industry.

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