Delta Air Lines Research Articles

Where is my suitcase? RFID and airline customer service

PurposeExamines the adoption of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology in the commercial aviation industry, focusing on its role in baggage handling and security.Design/methodology/approachDraws upon academic and trade literature to provide a current overview of developments in the implementation of RFID technology in commercial aviation, particularly focusing on Delta Airlines, an industry leader in the USA in the testing and development of RFID systems for improved operations in baggage handling.FindingsThough RFID technology is experiencing widespread adoption across many industries, commercial aviation seems poised to be a leader in its full‐scale adoption in practice. RFID technology demonstrates distinct advantages over the currently used barcode system for baggage handling.Practical implicationsThis paper shows how RFID technology can improve customer service though better operational efficiency in baggage handling, which has been demonstrated to be an integral component of an airline's customer service equation. Academicians and marketing professionals should both be aware of developments with RFID technology. It is of particular importance in the airline sector, as improved accuracy of baggage handling can enable air carriers to close an important service‐delivery gap in an increasingly turbulent operating environment.Originality/valueLittle is published in the academic literature about this timely topic. Most of the published information available is from corporate or commercial sources, and is presented in such formats as white papers. This paper is a companion piece to the review of RFID in UK retailing by Jones et al. in this issue.

APA Educates Employers on Value Of Mentally Healthy Workforce

Back to table of contents Previous article Next article The Medical Director's DeskFull AccessAPA Educates Employers on Value Of Mentally Healthy WorkforceJames H. Scully Jr., M.D.James H. Scully Jr.Search for more papers by this author, M.D.Published Online:6 Aug 2004https://doi.org/10.1176/pn.39.15.0390004 Why is it important to provide mental health resources for employees? How will it really affect our company's bottom line? These are just some of the questions that the National Partnership for Workplace Mental Health routinely addresses with employers around the country.The National Partnership for Workplace Mental Health is a public education program of the American Psychiatric Foundation in collaboration with APA and America's employers. The workplace partnership, founded in 2001, develops and supports educational efforts for employers to generate a better understanding of the benefits of a mentally healthy workforce, early recognition of mental disorders, effective treatment, and appropriate access to quality mental health care. The workplace partnership also serves as a forum for partners to share innovative strategies for addressing mental health issues.Among its founding partners are large companies such as AT&T, Coca-Cola, Delta Air Lines, and Dow Chemical; business organizations including the Society for Human Resource Management and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce; and government agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.The workplace partnership was created because businesses purchase 50 percent of all health care in the United States and also influence federal, state, and local government purchasing. Thus, employers have the ability to leverage their buying power to improve the mental health of employees and their families.Research shows that when companies invest in their employees' mental health, the bottom line improves through decreased physical health care costs, reduced short- and long-term disability costs, and lower absenteeism rates. The return on investment is even more dramatic when productivity gains are factored in. Healthy employees mean increased productivity and effectiveness for businesses. An economic analysis comparing depression treatment costs with lost productivity costs found that 45 percent to 98 percent of treatment costs were offset by increased productivity, according to R.C. Kessler and colleagues in “Depression in the Workplace: Effects on Short-Term Disability,” published in Health Affairs in 1999. There is indeed a “business case for providing quality mental health care.”Since the program's inception, the workplace partnership has successfully created print and Web-based educational material and resources for employers and employees including a brochure related to disasters that has been distributed to nearly a million employees. The workplace partnership has also co-developed a highly successful quarterly newsletter, Mental HealthWorks, which reaches 26,000 business leaders and psychiatrists.The workplace partnership is working with the National Business Coalition on Health to survey business coalitions across the country regarding their attitudes toward, interest in, and activities related to mental health issues. The survey results will directly inform program activities and the development of educational materials.In addition, the workplace partnership recently joined with APA to introduce an exciting new tool to raise awareness of depression in the workplace. The Depression Calculator is an online tool at<www.depressioncalculator.com> (see Original article: page 30) that enables employers to estimate the costs and productivity savings they could reap if employees suffering from depression receive effective treatment. The workplace partnership, along with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Institute of Health and Productivity Management, the Mid-America Coalition on Healthcare, and the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, is publicizing the availability of this tool to employers.The workplace partnership is part of a growing stable of programs and activities in the American Psychiatric Foundation. As a charitable and educational subsidiary of APA, the foundation's mission is to advance public understanding that mental illnesses are real and can be effectively treated. The foundation is entirely supported by private contributions, which fund initiatives that are making unique and important contributions to psychiatry, such as the workplace partnership.To receive a free subscription to Mental HealthWorks, send an e-mail to [email protected] with “free subscription” in the subject line. In the body of the e-mail, include your mailing address, phone number, and specify whether you would like to receive the publication by mail or e-mail.To learn more about the National Partnership for Workplace Mental Health, please visit<www.workplacementalhealth.org> or contact its director, Clare Miller, by phone at (703)-907-8673 or by e-mail at [email protected]. Information about the foundation, including details for donating, are posted at<www.psychfoundation.org>.Feel free to share your thoughts, comments, and suggestions with me at medical [email protected].▪ ISSUES NewArchived

M&amp;A integration at Delta Connection Inc.

Delta Connection Inc. is a profitable, growing business, generating over US$3 billion in annual revenues, and employing five regional airlines to operate 430 modern jet aircraft for Delta Air Lines and the SkyTeam alliance. This case study looks at the challenges Delta faced when integrating two acquired regional airlines into the core business.

American airlines’ takeover of TWA: an ex-post analysis of financial market information

This paper examines the stock market's reaction to the announcement of American Airline's takeover of Trans World Airlines, and then analyzes subsequent price movement through the completion of the merger. A second part of the analysis looks at American Airline's stock performance following the events of September 11, 2001. Given the dramatic changes to the airline industry after this national tragedy, it is possible that September 11th had further implications for the economic gains of the merger. As part of this analysis, we compare American's performance to Delta Airlines, a carrier similar in scope and size.

"Oh, so many startlements...": History, Race, and Myth in O Brother, Where Art Thou?

I was born in 1950 and so did not live through and have no memory of the Depression. Still, I feel in ways as if it is part of my experience, for I heard many stories of it from my parents and grandparents. My father's father owned a farm supply store that failed with the stock market collapse in 1929. He never held another job, though he was only in middle age. Apparently the experience ruined his spirit. He moved his family from the Grant Park area of Atlanta to a small town about ten miles south called College Park. This was an important step in the events that made my coming on the scene possible. My mother's father began his career in Orange, Texas, in the early 1920s as a race car driver, mechanic, and stunt pilot. With the onset of the Depression in the South, he began to dust crops and moved with his family back and forth through the Gulf states--Louisiana and Mississippi especially--dusting against the inexorable progress of the boll weevil. My mother remembers moving sixteen times in four years and attending thirteen different schools. She recalls spending one Easter morning waking up in the family car, parked on the side of a Florida road. Finally, tired of dusting, my grandfather moved into commercial flying. He settled with his family in College Park and became a pilot for Delta Air Lines. Thus another necessary moment. My father and mother met, married, and here I am. For many people of my era the Depression, which we didn't live through, was a real and palpable experience. We knew about it, heard family tales about it, shared in its history and folklore. It was part of our heritage. Thus for me at least, and I suspect for many people of my post-World War II generation in the American South, O Brother, Where Art Thou? speaks in a particular way, as if some of its scenes linger on the verge of memory, as if it is family history, or might have been, as if Ulysses Everett McGill is the paterfamilias of us all. Reviews of O Brother, Where Art Thou? tend to praise the film but often describe it as a work of fluff, with much comedy and great music but no substance. For example, Robert Horton of Film.com wrote that particular excursion into screwball madness is often heavenly, and frankly leaves critical explication somewhat unnecessary. Joel and Ethan Coen, the film's directors and screen writers, described O Brother as a Ma and Pa Kettle movie but with really big production values and as the Lawrence of Arabia of hayseed movies. Parallels to Homer's The Odyssey were seen as superficial, and both the Coens claimed they had never read the poem. (1) This is doubtful. The Coen brothers make films replete with literary references, and it is difficult to believe they escaped reading Homer. Besides, this film really does draw a number of witty and clever parallels with the Greek epic. On the other hand, the plot of The Odyssey, with its tall-tale-telling hero and his fantastic exploits, is so ingrained in the cultural consciousness that even if one didn't actually read The Odyssey exposure would still come through movies, cartoons, and comic books. Many reviews also note a connection to the 1941 Preston Sturges comedy Sullivan's Travels, which chronicles the efforts of a film director famous for his comedies to learn about the life of the downtrodden so he can make a film about suffering called O Brother, Where Art Thou? One might imagine that the Coens' O Brother, Where Art Thou? is the movie that Sturges's director really ought to have made. The Coens' film does use a number of conventions from the Sturges comedy--a quest-based travel plot, quick-fire repartee between characters, a concern with the Depression and the poor, with convicts and people on the lam. Both films take a decidedly serious turn at the end. Both also have a scene in which convicts watch a film. In Sturges's comedy this scene is the central dramatic moment. The director, John Sullivan, changes his name, abandons his assistants, and goes out on the road, incognito, to learn about the poor. …

Deploying regional jets to add new spokes to a hub

A common use of regional jets has been to add new spokes to existing hubs. This paper estimates a model to explain the 36 new links that were added by Delta Air Lines affiliate Comair to its Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky Airport hub between 1996 and 2001. Distance, population of the spoke city, and number of flights offered through alternative hubs were strong predictors of new service. The coefficients of the model were validated by using them to predict new links added over the same period at Atlanta, Georgia. The majority of these new routes were operated by regional jets owned by another Delta affiliate, Atlantic Southeast Airlines.

Delta Optimizes Continuing-Qualification-Training Schedules for Pilots

Delta Air Lines periodically trains its cockpit crew members to maintain their flight qualifications. The negotiation of the new pilot working agreement (PWA) in June 2001 introduced a short and stringent planning cycle and a new training-pay structure that affects operating costs. The downturn in airline business after September 11, 2001 forced Delta to reduce its workforce and to modify its requirements for scheduling pilot training. To mitigate Delta's exposure to costs and to automate the scheduling process under a rigid planning time line, we developed and deployed an automated optimization system, CQOPT, that builds and assigns training schedules based on individual pilot's requirements. The primary objectives of CQOPT are to minimize overall operating costs and maximize training assignments. Shortly after CQOPT's deployment in May 2002, the planning cycle dropped from several days to a few hours. Delta expects to save $7.5 million in annual operating costs by using CQOPT to schedule continuing qualification (CQ) training for its pilots.

Building Innovative Corporate Learning Beyond the Workplace

Presented is a case stud on Delta Air Lines' Delta U, a three pronged program designed to support continuous learning for employees through formal education beyond the workplace.

High‐level employee involvement at Delta Air Lines

AbstractAs described in this unique case study, Delta Air Lines operates one of the most advanced, high‐level employee involvement programs in the nation. Based on in‐depth field study and personal interviews, the development, structure, operation, and business goals of the program are described. The study then summarizes the business benefits and costs of this type of high‐level employee involvement program and concludes with 12 “lessons learned.” © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Cultural issues in airline crisis communications: A Japan‐US comparative study

Drawing upon Hofstede's (1980, 1991) five dimensions of culture, this study contrasts the organizational responses to two major airline crashes that occurred in 1985 in Japan and the United States. Using a qualitative approach, the study reveals significant cultural differences that affected communications practices by Japan Air Lines and Delta Air Lines. Findings are based upon analysis of 198 US newspaper stories and 196 Japanese newspaper and magazine stories published during the 10 days that followed each disaster. The study reveals significant differences in the use of apology, media strategies, and litigation concerns. The findings suggest that cultural sensitivity is a key to developing a successful crisis communication plan in the airline industry.

With Politics and Mental Illness, The More Things Change. . .

With Politics and Mental Illness, The More Things Change. . .

Incorporating Enterprise Risk Management Into the Curriculum: The Delta Air Lines Case Study

AbstractThis article describes a group project that was designed and implemented in an MBA‐level corporate risk management class. The primary objective of this project is to integrate the concepts of enterprise risk management into the graduate‐level risk management and insurance curriculum. This project combines both traditional and innovative risk management techniques into one semester‐long group case study. The Delta Air Lines case study was divided into three segments to focus on three distinct objectives. The first component, identification of Delta's horizon risks, is designed to spur creative thinking among the groups. The second component, analysis of workers' compensation claims, is a very traditional risk management exercise in risk evaluation designed to utilize traditional statistical analysis techniques (specifically, trending). The third component is estimating both total loss distributions and layers of loss due to airline crashes for potential capital market risk financing alternatives. This component involves more innovative financial risk management techniques (i.e., distribution fitting and simulation analysis). The objective is to familiarize students with the current techniques being used to evaluate risks that are currently (or potentially) being securitized in the capital markets.

E-Business at Delta Air Lines: Extracting Value from a Multi-Faceted Approach

Delta Air Lines entered e-business with much aplomb when it agreed to provide Priceline.com with its excess inventory (seats on planes) in exchange for a 10% equity position. When Priceline stock soared, Delta sold part of its holding for $750 million. Delta management recognized that e-business offered many different business opportunities and has identified ways to lower costs (e.g. selling tickets on line), increase revenues (e.g. selling excess inventory through Priceline), and experiment with new business concepts (developing MYOBTravel.com for small and medium-sized businesses). This case study describes Delta's e-business initiatives, noting the organizational structure used to aggressively pursue new opportunities. Of particular note is the role of the IT transformation that positioned Delta for the opportunities e-business created. Seeking to avert a Y2K crisis, Delta invested $1 billion in its IT infrastructure and developed a publish-and-subscribe environment to support a cross-functional customer orientation.

United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit: Republic National Bank of New York v. Delta Airlines

United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit: Republic National Bank of New York v. Delta Airlines

Companies Face Obstacles To Providing MH Benefits

Companies Face Obstacles To Providing MH Benefits

This is Your Life: How secure is your CRM data?

If you bank, buy insurance, financial services or shop for groceries or consult a dealer about a new car, you may be surprised to learn that your data has found its way into CRM (Customer Relationship Management) systems. CRM solutions are used increasingly by household names: Direct Line, Safeway, Barclays, Delta Air Lines, Renault and Peugeot, to build knowledge about customer interactions and the customer’s buying behaviour while giving the customer access to the organization through multiple channels.

Borenstein Looks Back on Presidential-Year Achievements

Borenstein Looks Back on Presidential-Year Achievements

A Simple Multi-Factor Model of Corporate Bond Prices

We propose a multi-factor structural model of corporate bond prices. Bonds are valued in an arbitrage-free setting. The term structure of credit spreads is a function of a set of observable variables, including the issuer's leverage ratio, the riskfree interest rate and other stochastic factors that proxy for the issuer's likelihood of default. The set of factors may include both systematic and idiosyncratic components. We test the model using prices of Delta Airlines' bonds. Factors included in this empirical analysis are the growth rate of GDP and the volatility on Delta's stock. The root mean squared error between actual credit spreads and model-determined credit spreads decreases from 45 to 40 basis points when these factors are included in the analysis. Several extant models in the literature are special cases of the structure developed here and rejected in the empirical work.

The Use of a High Fidelity Simulator to Improve Aircraft Inspection Performance: The ASSIST Program

The aircraft maintenance industry is a complex system consisting of several interrelated human and machine components. The linchpin of this system, however, is the human. Recognizing this, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has pursued human factors related research. In the maintenance arena the research has focused on the aircraft inspection process and the aircraft inspector. Training has been identified as the primary intervention strategy to improve the quality and reliability of aircraft inspection. In response to this need, the paper outlines the development of a high fidelity inspection training simulator (ASSIST: Automated System of Self Instruction for Specialized Training) focused on improving aircraft inspection performance and ultimately aviation safety. The research was funded by the Federal Aviation Administration and conducted by the Advanced Training Systems Laboratory of the Department of Industrial Engineering, Clemson University and was conducted in cooperation with Delta Airlines and Lockheed Martin Aircraft Center.

Keeping Their Eyes on the Skies

La relation entre les villes et leurs aeroports est devenue primordiale depuis le developpement phenomenal du transport de passagers sur les vols commerciaux depuis les annees 60. Cet article fait le point sur l'histoire recente d'Atlanta en Georgie, en particulier les liens de la ville avec sa compagnie aerienne principale, Delta Air Lines et analyse globalement les liens etroits existants entre villes, compagnies aeriennes et l'administration des aeroports.