Viva la France! It was a great day for Salt Lake City and Delta when the first transatlantic flight to Paris launched last week. It was over 2 years in the planning but state, city and county officials along with the business community came together to bring Europe a little closer to Utah.

The festivities started with the arrival flight from Paris. The airport officials graciously offered to meet the flight with a water cannon salute and a police escort to the Delta gate – it was quite a site for the media to cover this historic event from the tarmac. Upon arrival at the gate, the customers were greeted by Utah volunteers who provided them with a gift bag commemorating the inaugural flight. The customers were completely shocked by the enormous crowd outside the customs area when they arrived!

On the other side of the gate, the activities for the departing flight were in full swing. The Paris Restaurant in SLC provided yummy French cuisine including chocolate truffles that were to die for!!! The local Delta airport staff served the crowd of several hundred people. Janet Todd, a local musician, serenaded the crowd with her French accordion music.

All the local politicians were in attendance for the ribbon cutting ceremony – a last minute change to a meeting allowed Governor Jon Huntsman, SLC Mayor Ralph Becker and Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Caroon to be present at the gate to help cut the inaugural ribbon along with the Delta flight crew.

The customers were interviewed by the local media and some of the great stories included a gentleman who was traveling to Paris to meet his internet girlfriend, winners of radio promotions who had never been out of the country and a local SLC resident was traveling to Bristol, England via Paris which reduced his normal travel time by 5 hours.

It was a great day for the airport as well. Brett Rydault, Delta’s station manager, organized pizza parties for the Delta employees to celebrate. I was fortunate enough to be on the inaugural flight to Paris. It was one of the more memorable experiences I’ve had in my 17 years with Delta. As the Delta airport staff gathered on the tarmac to wave goodbye, the water cannon salute bid the flight “bon voyage”!

Julie

Marketing Manager

Delta Air Lines

Hey Everyone,

Well we’re getting ready to fly up to Chicago for the start of a very important, 10 day trip that will take us here, then to Los Angeles, and then to Dallas, Texas. At least the trip got off to a good start for me financially, as we thankfully didn’t arrive in Chicago late last night, which would have given Catie a full day to walk the streets of Michigan Avenue!

The team is coming off a three game sweep at the hands of the Philadelphia Phillies, and because we are one of the very best teams in baseball at home (we’ve struggled on the road), this weekend was a wake up for our club. Baseball is a game of streaks. When teams are hot, everything is great. The flights across the country don’t nearly seem that long, and the questions the media ask are fun to answer. When a team loses a few in a row, as we have, the flights become quieter, and the questions become tougher to answer.

Flying on Delta

On this flight up to Chicago it will be all business. I’ve been working with our coaching staff to help determine what I need to do with my swing to get me back to hitting at a higher average. On the flight, I’ll look to see if I can spend time going over some of my at bats on a portable DVD player that we can use to see some of our highlights, etc.

Different teams do different things on flights. I actually heard that the Colorado Rockies put their players’ swings on video Ipods and let them watch their at bats on the plane that way. Some guys like to take flights as their ‘personal’ time away from the media and the crowds. It’s an opportunity for them to read a book or check out the stock market or even check out the box scores of other players/friends. It’s a bit surreal to open up the newspaper on an airplane and read about yourself and all your friends. And people write about the Braves every day.

Summertime Trips

As we get towards the months of June and July my off the field routine became more and more structured. It’s so incredibly hot during the summer months, particularly in Atlanta, that it’s too hard to play baseball at the level I want to on the baseball field if I’ve spent a lot of my energy out on the golf course in the morning. People ask me all of the time what I take on a road trip. Ha, I wish I had something better to tell them. I did not take my golf clubs on the trip, even though Chicago, Los Angeles, and Dallas have some incredible courses. I did take about six dress shirts, four or five ties, and three different suit jackets/pants. That way, I’ll never double up on the road and make the “rookie” mistake that we all make.

I did hear about a story involving a player on the San Francisco Giants rookie who forgot to bring his belt on the road trip. Well, he figured “oh, I have a belt. It’s the belt I wear during my games” and tried to sneak out to the bus on the last day of a road trip wearing his San Francisco Giants uniform belt with his suit. Now that is what I call a real “rookie mistake”!

Is there one item you can’t leave behind “on the road”?

Best,

Jeff

NOTE: Last week was Delta Day at Turner Field in Atlanta. The picture shows me signing an incredible painting that artist (and Delta employee!) Adam Pinsley produced to be auctioned off for charity. It’s almost a life-size portrait of me, and you can tell from the pics how honored I was to sign it.