The Historical Development of Delta Air Lines

In 1979, the last year for which complete statistics are available, the airlines of the United States carried a record 317 million passengers over 262 billion passenger miles. Although gross revenues increased to $27 billions that year, net earnings plummeted from $1,197 millions in 1978 to $409 millions in 1979. Soaring fuel costs were the main culprit for the earnings reduction. These increased by 89 percent in a single year and accounted for $2.3 billions in increased expenditures.' In spite of a poor financial year, U.S. scheduled air carriers did provide 84.6 percent of intercity public passenger miles generated in the nation. This was up from 83.8 percent in 1978 and 76.0 percent in 1969.2 Thus, the airlines have become an increasingly important medium of public transportation.