Today Delta celebrates 30 years of transatlantic service!

In 1978, service across the Atlantic was a “dream come true” for us, after trying more than a decade for authority. Our first Delta-operated transatlantic Lockheed 1011 flight began its journey in New Orleans, then stopped in Atlanta before continuing on nonstop to London-Gatwick.

The following day, May 1, 1978, was another big day for Delta as the return flight left London for Atlanta.

Drizzly weather did not dampen the spirits of those during the ribbon-cutting ceremony on the ramp at Gatwick’s Gate 18. Sir Kenneth Keith, Rolls-Royce’s chairman of the board is pictured here cutting the ribbon at our celebration. To his left is Delta CEO Dave Garrett; and on the right dressed as a “Southern belle” is Sherry Cardinale, a Delta marketing representative, beside John Mulkern, chairman of the British Airports Authority, and Carolyn Cote, Delta flight attendant.

Today, Delta operates service to more worldwide destinations than any airline with Delta and Delta Connection flights to 306 destinations in 58 countries.

Celebrate with us! Jet Delta to London.

Marie Force
Archives Manager

Well, we have returned from our 12 day long road trip that took us to Denver, Washington, D.C., and Miami/Fort Lauderdale. I can’t tell you how difficult this trip was for me from a “packing” standpoint. I don’t know how you frequent fliers do this all year long. Basically, I had to take three completely different sets of clothing. For Denver, it was long sleeve shirts, heavy sweatshirts, and coats. It was so cold one day that our game against the Colorado Rockies was actually “snowed out.” We’ve had plenty of rain outs before, but a snow out is definitely unusual. Needless to say, I didn’t spend much time outside of our hotel and the ballpark in Colorado. It was just too cold.

After heading back to Washington for a few days, we were able to put away the coats and long sleeve shirts, thankfully, with a three game trip to south Florida to play the Florida Marlins. Few things in the world beat being able to open up your window in a hotel room and see the Atlantic Ocean. As I was talking about in my previous post, we had a scheduled day off and it gave everyone on the club an opportunity to do what they pleased. Floridagolf suggested some great golf courses in the area, all of which I checked into and many of which also came highly recommended by our hotel staff. I also met up with friends for an incredible meal at Joe’s Stone Crab in Miami Beach. Have any of you been there?

I’m back in Atlanta now, and as many of you also know, I was married this off-season and my wife Catie and I are going through our first year of living together. One of our neighbors in Atlanta in having a garage sale and Catie and I are participating in it. I’m telling you, Catie is thinking of selling everything. We’re selling everything from my old golf clubs (that brings a tear to my eye), to clothes, to jewelry. So if you see someone walking around in clothing that you think you saw me wearing once, you aren’t crazy and you can probably guess that it was purchased at the garage sale.

The next few weeks are going to be big for our baseball team. We play our division rivals at home (Washington, and Florida) but then we go up to New York for the first time this season to take on the New York Mets and then back to Washington, D.C. Monday, April 28^th is an off-day for the team as we have a game in New York on Sunday and a game in Washington on Tuesday. Sometimes, a club gets to decide if they want to stay in a city for an extra day or if they want to get to the next city a day early. This one is a tough choice. If you could spend one “free day” on April 28^th in either New York or in Washington, which city would you pick? Any packing tips to share?

Best,

Jeff

Delta is proud to be the Official Airline of The Atlanta Braves.