Ed, thanks so much for joining us inside the Ice House. Really happy to have you here.
It's great to be with you.
So, before we start, this is the first episode in our new studio. Over 7 years we spent in the library, which is six floors up from where the trading floor is. But today marks our move into this new space. Now, we at the NYC are 233 years old, and we're so excited to obviously have Delta here to celebrate its centennial, 100 years old, the first US airline to reach that mark. First of, what do you think of the new space and how fun was it to ring the bell this morning to celebrate such a milestone?
Well, congratulations on the new space. It's beautiful. I think people will love to come here. And Lynn gave me a tour earlier this morning about the bar and the different things that are being created. It's incredible. On the history, this is the vault from over 200 years or whatever it was in terms of when it was created. And it was really special. It's always special to come to the NYSE and you guys are always so gracious with us and hosting us. And New York is a big, big part of our marketplace. We're the airline of New York. It's one of the biggest markets that we serve and the investments that we've made in LaGuardia and JFK and the growth we've seen here in this market is fantastic. And this is the center of capitalism for me, being from New York originally. Don't live here anymore. But every time I'm back and I'm on the floor I pinch myself. I remember the very first day, I think I was in high school, on a trip coming to the floor and I was amazed. There's a lot of people running around and a lot of paper and a lot of action. You don't see that as much today, but it's still the centerpiece for capital flow and formation and for companies that want to be with the very best and that's what you guys are. And so for me it's always an opportunity. And 100 years is amazing but we're young compared to you guys. So we're going to keep going to our second century.
Absolutely. Now 100 years is a monumental achievement for any company but I imagine it hits differently when you're the one, and no pun intended here, obviously flying the plane of Delta Airlines. You haven't been around for all 100 years. I know you've been with Delta. I think your career started in 1998 with the company. So about 27 years. But when you look at those 27 and even the 73 years before, how does this moment resonate with you? Not just to have obviously started with the company but to now be leading it.
Well, I think those last 25 or 30 years probably have seen the greatest challenge in our 100-year history. It's been the greatest growth. Today our revenues are four times the size that they were back 25 years ago. When you think about how we've grown our business and our footprint and our brand around the world, not just around the US. Back then we were a US company but very much a southeast-centric airline. Today we're a true global airline and our future is to continue to grow that international aspect of the business. So I take a lot of pride when you look through all that and you say what is the common denominator? It's people. And Delta always had a heart for service. That's in our DNA and our founder 100 years ago said take good care of your people and they will then take care of your customers. And we're in a customer-obsessed world and I told people we are customer obsessed but I'm not customer obsessed. I'm people obsessed in terms of my own people and making sure I listen to them. I give them the tools. I give them the technologies. I give them the support they need so they can obsess on our customers and it has to happen. The people delivering the product have to feel the trust and the confidence of their leadership to go make it happen and know that we always have their back. Particularly when you're in an environment where you're flying planes and people all around the world in all kinds of conditions.
Yeah. And people are relying on you and Delta to obviously get from point A to point B. And I think that point A to point B as the aviation industry and the airline industry has transformed. It's gone from just being right like you sit in the seat, you fly from one place to another. It's now a holistic experience when you leave your house to when you ultimately get to where you're going. And I think that speaks a lot to the different partnerships that obviously Delta has set up. Now, I know there's one partnership with Uber. It sort of feels like more than just a convenience, but a real strategic move to sort of redefine this end-to-end travel experience. Walk us through this thinking with Uber. What made them the right partner and how does this partnership fit into Delta's vision for really seamless travel from start to finish?
Well, Dara and I have been talking for years about needing to get our teams together. And we had some other partners on both sides that we were working with and we decided to make changes and create this unique partnership. It's exclusive and it's exclusive in the premium category. So, where Uber is looking to grow its business is where Delta has been growing for years, which is the premium component and that's unique about where we sit. The most important source of trips for Uber is airports. No surprise in terms of revenue base. I think the number is 15% of their revenues are trips to and from airports. We do airports better than anybody. We understand airports. We understand logistics at airports and we want to make the experience for our consumer as seamless as possible. We want to take people right through, have a seamless connection into their Uber ride to get them home safely or if they're not an Uber, maybe Joby, another partner of ours on eVTOL for the future. And when you have a common purpose as our two brands do and it's focused on service and people and taking great care of them, there's magic that can occur. And that's where we're experimenting. We only announced it this year. I think we started in the spring in terms of actually customers getting the ability to sign up on both platforms and be joint customers. We have well over a million customers have signed up already just in a handful of months to be part of this. So there's a strong demand set and it grows every month.
Well, congratulations not only on the 100 years, but on all the success of this partnership. And I know Delta also has a long-standing relationship with American Express and the collaboration seems like a real gateway to a premium travel experience from access to different benefits to elevated rewards. How does this partnership with AMX really enhance the connection customers have with Delta and provide them just a greater overall experience flying?
Well, once again, our focus has been on the higher end, the premium experience of travel, and we live in the experience economy. And the higher you go within the experience set, the greater the demand we're seeing for it. And Delta is the provider of that from a travel perspective, particularly air travel. AMX is the provider of that from a credit card perspective and the unique opportunities they can afford people. And people carry their card with pride when they use that card just like Delta customers. I see them always want to show me their Delta loyalty card or their Delta AMX card. We are 10% of AMX's worldwide billings and an even more powerful stat is 30% of AMX's US consumer spend is on the Delta card. So that tells you again we're growing together. We've seen our card continue to grow double digits even during some of the disruption this year and some of the questions about consumer confidence. It continued to grow through the pandemic. It really took off during the pandemic. People want to get those Delta points, the Delta rewards, and they sit as they were buying back during the pandemic about the trips they were going to take when they could start to fly again and planning ahead. And that shows true synchronicity between our two brands and very complimentary purposes and shared customer goals.
So Ed, trust has become really a cornerstone of the travel experience. Customers want clarity on pricing, on policies, some even on sustainability commitments to a certain extent. How is Delta working to build and obviously maintain that trust that's gotten you to 100 years? And what role does transparency play in strengthening the relationship between your airline and its customers?
I think transparency is incredible and trust is a currency that we have to always put right at the top of our list of what we want our customers to think about Delta. We want them to think about Delta in lots of different ways. But trust I think would probably be the first word, the first word I use always when I talk about the experience. You know, safety, the trust in terms of reliability of the product, getting people to where they need to be with their bags, with a smile, on time. That's our core promise. And that is easy to say, hard to do. And there's no one out there that does that better than Delta day in and day out. That's the platform, by the way, where you build premium from. If you don't have the platform that is a high-end reliable experience, all the other stuff, you can't put the hard goods in, you can't put the fancy lounges in if customers are going to feel like they're let down with the core promise why they come to you. So that's where we've had a significant lead over the last 15 to 20 years. Business Travel News recently named us yet again the number one airline for business travel 15 years in a row. You talk about trust and Business Travel News surveys all business travelers around the US and around the world and they come back to Delta. And then transparency is then the next component of trust. And that's really one of the things we want customers to feel more in control of when they're traveling. And that's why we're making the big investments in our app. Yes, we launched at CES during the Consumer Electronics Show this year Delta Concierge which will be an opportunity to take that app and feel like you've got your own red coat in your palm to be able to take care of whatever experiences happen. We understand sometimes planes get delayed or issues happen for us. It's not the fact that issues occur. It's what you do when issues occur that defines who you are and transparency is key to that. Having giving people insight into what caused the disruption, what we know about the disruption, when they can plan for the next change, or whether it's, as you say, pricing, where are price points and giving people visibility across cabins to make decisions as to where they want to invest with us.
Now, no trend or technology is impacting the world we live in more than AI right now. One of the possible benefits of AI, of course, is personalization. And that in itself I think has become an expectation for consumers. How is Delta leveraging technology and AI specifically to obviously create experiences that feel personal to individual travelers and how are these innovations just showing up in different steps of the flying process?
Well, we know our customers really well. They spend a lot of time with us and they expect us to know them well. They expect us to know what they prefer, what they like to make their travel experience easier, to make it more seamless. And whether that's understanding when you board a Delta One cabin flying to Europe, understanding what you want when you sit down in that plane or what we can do to offer you the service level that you uniquely desire. We're learning more and more about those experiences. One of the reasons why we launched Delta Concierge, you think about a concierge experience at a five-star, seven-star hotel. It's someone that has knowledge, has insight, wants to go out and anticipate what you might like and offer you those opportunities. Well, that's what we're looking to do. We understand most customers start their journey first picking their airline, first getting their booking in place and then they start to build around that. Knowing you, knowing where you've been, what you like, what you don't like and allowing through AI and generative agents and opportunities to offer you things that you want, not to sell you, not to bug you, but to enhance the experience space that builds loyalty. And we want that app to be the center and the concierge experience to be the center of your travel booking. We don't need you to go to another travel agency. We don't need you to go online and shop us on price that you have confidence and trust in that. And whether again it's an Uber opportunity or Starbucks or one of our hotel partners, whatever we can do to give you a better experience, that's going to build deeper loyalty.
