Delta Air Lines marks its 80th year in Charleston this month

Delta Air Lines this month celebrates 80 years in Charleston.

Charleston, S.C., 2014-8-7 — /Travel PR News/ — Delta, the largest airline at CHS, began serving the Charleston community with mail service on July 7, 1934. Then, a month later on Aug. 5, 1934, the airline began passenger service.

In 1934, air service was aboard a seven-passenger 100 mph Stinson T aircraft. It took 23 hours and 42 minutes with 10 stops to fly mail to Dallas, Texas.  When the current airport terminal open in 1985 Delta offered seven daily non-stop flights that transported 400 passengers a day to Atlanta.

Today, Delta offers 35 flights in and out of Charleston International to Detroit, Atlanta and LaGuardia and John F. Kennedy airports in New York City. It’s takes 45 to 90 minutes to get to those destinations. The largest aircraft that serves Charleston today is MD88 that carries a maximum of 149 passengers and travels at speeds up to 498 mph.

In 2013, Delta greeted just over 1 million passengers flying in and out of CHS. That’s one-third of all passengers in 2013.

Delta Air Lines and Delta Global Services, an aviation ground handling service, employs approximately 100 people at Charleston International.

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