High-Performance Culture
At Delta, the work we do matters. Ensuring our customers’ safety and high-quality service demands that we perform at our highest level. That means coming together as a team, with all of our people doing their part to ensure a safe, clean, on-time operation and going above and beyond for every customer, every day, on every flight.
As our colleagues fuel our success, we foster this culture of integrity, care, servant leadership and resilience, grounded in personal accountability. We do so guided by our simple philosophy that when we invest in our people, they take care of our customers, who reward us with their business and loyalty. We work to engage our people, listen and respond to their feedback and recognize their achievements. We know that when we unite to be the best at what we do, we make a difference for our customers and for the success of our business.
Saw record participation in our annual Employee Engagement Survey, with nearly 58,000 employees participating.
At Delta, our No. 1 job is taking care of our people. Our success flows from this simple concept.”
Engagement Through Connection
We build a culture of engagement through a wide range of programs:
B-DAY
Half-day onboarding experience for new hires to learn about Delta’s business, brand, culture and history while connecting with fellow team members
EXECUTIVE STATION VISITS
Town hall-style listening and feedback sessions where senior leaders have candid conversations with frontline employees
24,870
Employees engaged in 2025
67
Executive leaders participated
137
Visits to 50 stations
VELVET
Delta’s VELVET conference experience opens in a new window enables frontline employees to meet and hear directly from senior leaders and share their feedback to help shape the company's future. VELVET is offered multiple times a year, in various cities, reaching roughly 6,300 Delta people annually.
These sessions are open to all frontline employees.
4.9/5
Overall satisfaction score for participants
14
Sessions
6,300
Employees engaged in 2025
Building on Our Culture of Accessibility
Presenting to the thousands of Delta leaders gathered for our Winter LEAD Conference in 2025, members of our Advisory Board on Disability and Accessible Travel shared the deeply personal ways opens in a new window Delta supports their comfort and accessibility when they travel.
Customers Minna Hong, who uses a wheelchair, and Thomas Panek, who is blind and travels with his service dog, Ten, shared what it feels like to entrust their physical agency to Delta when they board a flight and how, through our accessibility-focused training, they feel truly understood and valued. Leaders were able to bring these powerful experiences back to the front line and throughout Delta as we propel into the next century of flight.
Engagement Through Listening
We continually engage with our people through our open-door policy, employee engagement groups and Business Resource Groups, in-person events with senior management, digital communications and surveys to evaluate employee satisfaction and priorities for the compensation and benefits they receive.
In 2025, we saw record participation in our Employee Engagement Survey, with nearly 58,000 employees participating. The annual survey is an opportunity for our people to reflect and share feedback on their work experience, leadership and safety at Delta. As a result of employee feedback, in 2025, we introduced greater flexibility for employees’ family and friends to travel, including the addition of a secondary travel companion and the expansion of our discounted Fly Confirmed For Less programs.
Work anniversaries are so important at Delta that we even put our own spin on the name: Deltaversary, a day to celebrate and check in on each employee. In 2025, the Deltaversary Survey captured increased participation, including through the use of technology to better facilitate frontline employees' responses. The survey found engagement scores rising year over year, strong inclusion sentiment across all generations, average tenure exceeding a decade and a robust leadership pipeline. These metrics reflect a workforce built for long-term resilience and founded on a robust people strategy and organizational culture where employees across roles, generations and geographies report a meaningful sense of connection and belonging.
Delta uses employee feedback to inform investments in our people and provide senior leaders with actionable insights concerning programs and policies. Leaders receive aggregated results for their teams, with Employee Engagement Survey responses remaining confidential. The Delta Board Council, comprising employee representatives from every major noncontract operating division, relays employee feedback, perspectives and suggestions directly to our executives and Board of Directors.
Our people’s unwavering focus on safety and care is what builds a deep loyalty among customers and drives continued success for Delta.”
58K
Employees participated in our annual Employee Engagement Survey
83
Average engagement score for the 2025 survey (unchanged from 2024)
(out of a 100-point scale)
Engagement Through Recognition
We celebrate and reward the contributions of our people, while fostering deep engagement, through several core programs:
UNSTOPPABLE TOGETHER
This program encourages peer-to-peer and manager-to-employee recognition in real time. Managers can also award their team members with Delta Difference points that can be redeemed for SkyMiles, gift cards and much more.
DELTA LEADERSHIP EXCELLENCE AWARD
This award is bestowed upon divisionally selected frontline operational leaders who are driving our culture and are working to increase frontline team members’ engagement and performance.
100
Awarded in 2025
SHOW OUR TEAM SOME LOVE
This program enables customers to share positive experiences and interactions more easily and directly with employees.
48K
Recognitions extended from customers directly to employees in 2025
RANKED 9TH
100 Best Companies to Work For® 2026
Fortune
CHAIRMAN’S CLUB
Delta’s premier annual global recognition program honors 100 employees who continuously demonstrate our core values and embody “the spirit of Delta.” Following a competitive peer nomination and selection process, the honorees are recognized and celebrated with their families and peers at a red-carpet event and black-tie gala.
11,342
Nominated in 2025
Business Resource Groups Foster Inclusion
With more than 24,000 members across 12 Business Resource Groups (BRGs), Delta’s BRGs create value by providing meaningful insights into business strategy, customer offerings and employee perspectives through their unique lenses. Beyond business impact, BRGs strengthen connection and foster a sense of belonging across the company. Delta supports the ability for employees to form BRGs that build community and advance the business, whether centered on shared interests, faith, culture or other common experiences. All Delta BRGs are open to every employee.
- ABLE – Disability
- ADELANTE – Latin America and Hispanic
- BOLD – Black
- DESI – South Asia
- EQUAL – LGBTQ+
- FUSION – Asia-Pacific
- GENGAGE – Multigenerational Workforce
- GREEN UP – Sustainability
- SHE – Women
- VETERANS – Veterans and Armed Forces
- WORKING FAMILIES – Working Parents and/or Caregivers
- YALLAH – Middle East and North Africa
10%
Growth year over year in the number of Delta employees who belong to a BRG