ATLANTA, June 11, 2014 – Delta Air Lines (NYSE: DAL) is restructuring its Delta Cargo organization to align more closely to the passenger side of Delta’s business. Cargo Sales will become part of the Global Sales team, and Cargo Operations will be aligned with Airport Customer Service. The move comes after Tony Charaf, Delta’s senior vice president and chief cargo officer, elected to retire effective Aug. 1 after 18 years of service.
Delta Cargo’s new structure will set the organization up for even greater success and benefit customers by giving Cargo greater access to resources on the passenger side of the business. This will allow it to continue offering the products and service levels customers expect from Delta while continuing to make investments in the customer experience.
“With this new structure, Delta Cargo remains a highly valued part of our business, and these changes will provide each group with the resources they need to meet our cargo-related goals,” said Ed Bastian, Delta’s president.
Under the new structure, Ray Curtis, v.p.–Global Cargo Sales, will report to Steve Sear, s.v.p.–Global Sales, while the Cargo operations team under the leadership of Scott Barkley, managing director–Global Cargo Operations, will report to Bill Lentsch, s.v.p.–Airport Customer Service.
Under Tony’s leadership, Delta Cargo outperformed the industry in revenue and volume and improved operational performance despite a challenging freight industry landscape including competitors with larger aircraft and more freight-carrying capabilities. A strong supporter of e-commerce, Delta Cargo has become the leader in e-freight practices, increasing e-airway bill adoption to 50 percent domestically and more than 20 percent internationally.
“Tony’s contributions to Delta over the last 18 years are immeasurable and have had a direct impact on the airline Delta is today – especially our unique culture,” Ed said. “A staunch and well-respected leader, Tony has been a champion for Delta people throughout his career and has epitomized servant leadership and the core values outlined in our Rules of the Road – he will be greatly missed.”
As head of Delta TechOps for eight years before making the transition to Delta Cargo, Tony’s team significantly grew revenue from Delta’s Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul business and led his team to industry-leading completion factor and on-time reliability results, helping to lay the framework for the strong operational performance Delta is recording today.
Delta Air Lines serves nearly 165 million customers each year. This year, Delta was named the 2014 Airline of the Year by Air Transport World magazine and was named to FORTUNE magazine’s top 50 Most Admired Companies in addition to being named the most admired airline for the third time in four years. With an industry-leading global network, Delta and the Delta Connection carriers offer service to 333 destinations in 64 countries on six continents. Headquartered in Atlanta, Delta employs nearly 80,000 employees worldwide and operates a mainline fleet of more than 700 aircraft. The airline is a founding member of the SkyTeam global alliance and participates in the industry’s leading trans-Atlantic joint venture with Air France-KLM and Alitalia as well as a newly formed joint venture with Virgin Atlantic. Including its worldwide alliance partners, Delta offers customers more than 15,000 daily flights, with hubs in Amsterdam, Atlanta, Cincinnati, Detroit, Minneapolis-St. Paul, New York-JFK, New York-LaGuardia, Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Salt Lake City and Tokyo-Narita. Delta has invested billions of dollars in airport facilities, global products, services and technology to enhance the customer experience in the air and on the ground. Additional information is available on delta.com, Twitter @Delta, Google.com/+Delta, Facebook.com/delta and Delta’s blog takingoff.delta.com.
