Delta Air Lines began in 1925 as Huff Daland Dusters in Macon, Georgia. The company sprayed crops to kill boll weevils, an insect pest, across the cotton belt. C.E. Woolman led a buyout in 1928 and renamed it Delta Air Service, after the Mississippi Delta region it served. Passenger flights started in 1929 between Dallas and Jackson, Mississippi. Delta moved its headquarters to Atlanta in 1941.
Delta grew by buying rivals: Chicago and Southern Air Lines in 1953, Northeast Airlines in 1972, and Western Airlines in 1987. Western brought airports in the West where Delta connects many flights. Delta became a transatlantic power by purchasing most of Pan Am's European network in 1991. In 2000 it helped found the SkyTeam alliance, a group of airlines that work together, with Air France, Aeromexico, and Korean Air.
Delta filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2005 and emerged in 2007. Its 2008 merger with Northwest Airlines briefly made Delta the world's largest airline and added Pacific routes Northwest Orient had built. In 2012 Delta bought an oil refinery in Pennsylvania to cut fuel costs. Today Delta ranks among the world's most profitable airlines, anchored by its giant Atlanta hub, the busiest airport on earth.