How Delta Is Reaching New Heights Of Sustainability
The century-old Delta Air Lines company entered Earth Month (April) 2025 in a position of strength.
CEO Ed Bastian had been open with shareholders about the 'broad economic uncertainty around global trade' of late, and why that's caused a slower-growth environment. Nevertheless, Delta remains economically stable. It expects June quarter profitability of $1.5 to $2 billion. As proof of that, Delta, in contrast to airlines affected by supply chain challenges at Boeing, took delivery of more new mainline aircraft in 2024 than any other carrier – 38 planes – because 100% came from Airbus.
The Atlanta-based airline is also expanding its joint venture with LATAM to Argentina. It has been rolling out new cabin interiors – nose-to-tail renovations – across its entire fleet. Meanwhile, its multi-year partnership with the PGA TOUR makes Delta the official airline of the global golf juggernaut.
Strategy refreshment
The most exciting news, however, for Chief Sustainability Officer Amelia DeLuca, a near-20-year veteran of the airline, was the April 1, 2025, launch of Delta's 'refresh strategy.'
'I told my family,' she shared, 'this is like Super Bowl time for us. We're deep in our ESG report work, so this is a busy time of the year. We're blessed that we have so much good stuff just to talk about.'
Delta's refresh is architected around three pillars, DeLuca explains: 'What we fly, how we fly, and the fuel we use' to fly there. The three pillars are expected to support the airline's operational and sustainability strategies through 2050.
Delta's proposed more sustainable, elevated future of travel is based on clear metrics. Its tactics focus on efforts to expand coalitions, leverage existing solutions and tech, and invest in the future of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).
'I love the three pillars,' DeLuca says. One can also look at them as 'short, medium, and long-term' goals, or 'what we control, and then obviously, things that we don't control, but we can build partnerships on. All of that is encompassed in them. All backed by data. All driven by the fact that ninety percent of our [company's] impact on the planet comes from jet fuel emissions, but balanced by the fact that we're also a consumer brand. So, we have to make sure that consumers are at the forefront of everything that we do. So everything that we do ladders up to those pillars.'
Says DeLuca, 'No matter who your stakeholder is, they can appreciate an action the company is taking related to one of those pillars.' Delta is consistently focused on consumer experience, where the key measure of its success in sustainability is customer impressions, 'starting with what we fly, which is how a lot of people think about sustainability.'
'That's why we address the 'how we fly' pillar through things beyond carbon emissions. [For example], we look at pain points such as single-use plastics, which can taint an entire travel experience for someone who's trying to travel sustainably.'
'So 'how we fly' is this kind of balance between what our consumers see, but also a lot of things that they don't see, which we don't always get credit for.'
Using less fuel, flying more cool
Not to say emissions reduction alone isn't a big deal. 'We do want to share how much jet fuel we're saving today to operate more efficiently,' says DeLuca. 'And then of course, our fuels of the future, cleaner fuels, are exciting because that involves so many stakeholders, from farmers in rural communities, to state, federal, and global policymakers, to standing up an entirely new value chain in the United States around energy independence.'
In pursuit of such independence, Delta is partnering with JetZero on a revolutionary blended-wing-body aircraft. The low-drag, lightweight, 'all-wing' Z4 uses up to 50% less fuel than today's commercial jets. The plane is so wide that it could support a standard pickleball court in the main body!
'So, all of this is a huge body of exciting work,' says DeLuca. 'And ultimately, we need all of these items in parallel, working towards net zero.'
Delta's been working in earnest on that net-zero mission since 2020, when it committed $1 Billion toward sustainability initiatives, acknowledging the extent to which global airlines contribute to environmental degradation. It wanted to 'take ownership' for its part in that, according to DeLuca:
'No one should have to choose between seeing the world and saving the world.'
At the time, the airline stated that it intended to lead its industry, but now, according to DeLuca, it recognizes that a more practical philosophy has led to its more efficacious 'refresh strategy.'
'With the refresh strategy,' she says, 'we've taken the time over the last couple of years to not only understand what our impacts are, but also how best to tackle them. So if we have a dollar to spend, let's spend it on the best bang for our buck when it comes to carbon abatement. And so those three pillars help show the short, medium, and long-term return that comes from the company investing in this work.'
Never mind the complexity of that work. With 100,000 Delta people working to maintain world-class customer experience on up to 5,000 daily Delta and Delta Connection flights to nearly 300 destinations on six continents, Delta served more than 200 million customers in 2024.
Says DeLuca, 'I've had almost nineteen years at this company, and what I love about Delta is that it does really hard things. Every day, from just running an operation to not laying anyone off during the pandemic, we do hard things here. I'm proud of what we've done today to try to create a more sustainable travel experience, a more efficient operation.'
Delta's DNA
'Prioritizing and making sure that we're rolling out paper cups throughout our operation; starting this month, they're already international, and they're coming to domestic soon. Prioritizing and getting full enterprise support for decarbonization. Short-term milestones run through our Carbon Council. That's fuel that we can save today through operating procedures, through fleet modifications. It's funded, it's prioritized, and it's supported throughout the organization. Anyone at this company who can touch and influence that work has that built into their business at this point.'
—Amelia DeLuca
'To me, sustainability is a lot more about the how than the what right now. The what comes after the how. So, first, we figure out how to get businesses to shift.'
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