When The Dust Settles, Delta Airlines Emerges

Press event being held in La Guardia while we were waiting for our next plane.

It’s a natural inclination with any organization to “hunker down” as the winds of a major economic turndown overwhelms everyone throughout the country. But World Class organizations manage to forge on in such a way that when the dust settles, they emerge ready to take advantage of the turnaround.

Well, the dust has settled, and as I stepped off my plane on Sunday at New York’s La Guardia Airport, I was delighted to see greeting us were scores of red and blue balloons along with complimentary cookies for passengers boarding. All of this was in celebration of Delta inaugurating a terminal expansion and 100 new Delta flights out of that airport. While no additional slots were added to LGA’s total number, it is the largest airline expansion in the last 40 years at La Guardia. With this expansion, they are able to offer 26 new destinations from that terminal, as well as 700 new jobs.

I admit that I’m a member of Delta’s SkyMiles program with Platinum status. I travel a lot. I think a lot about the quality of service I receive from Delta. My colleagues who flew Northwest Air were concerned that quality would go down when they merged with Delta. It didn’t help that the merger came as the economy was going bust. But my experience has been that service at Delta has improved, and probably has benefited from that merger. As their marketing declares: “Building a Better Airline. Not Just a Bigger One. More Flights. More Destinations. More Work to be Done.”

I think that’s a great message for all organizations: “Building a Better Company. Not Just a Bigger One. More Opportunities. More Business. More Work to be Done.” Now’s the time to act, whether you think the economy is improving or not. Now’s the time to act.