Delta's E.V.P. and Chief People Officer Allison Ausband sits down with a flight attendant with nearly 40 years of experience in the skies, highlighting the reverberating connection between people and places with care. 

What does it mean to connect the world – and do it better than anyone else?

Connecting the world is something Delta has done for 100 years. And it’s because of our people. It’s because of the pilots, flight attendants and customer service agents who welcome our customers with a smile every day. The Reservations and Customer Care teams who greet every caller with a smile you can hear. The technicians who work tirelessly to maintain and upgrade our planes. The professionals who creatively plan and solve challenges in our Operations and Customer Center, in close partnership with our frontline leaders.

And so many, many more in this family of 100,000 who make it their personal mission to connect people and communities. It’s so ingrained in people like Atlanta-based flight attendant Frances McGee that it’s not just a mission statement. When I asked her about her favorite part of her job, she answered without hesitation: “Connecting. Connecting with the people. Our guests on the aircraft, the flight attendants, the pilots, the gate agents.”

“I’ve made so many friends here. True friends – some I’ve known for 35 years, and some I just met a few years ago,” Frances told me recently during a conversation at our Flight Attendant Training Center in Atlanta. “When times are happy, they’re there. When times aren’t so happy, they’ve been there.”

I got to sit down with Frances the day before her 35th Deltaversary, in the training center where our new flight attendants start off their careers. Frances embodies something that I love to tell our people: Every customer who crosses that threshold is experiencing something different and traveling for a different reason. Our job is to understand their needs and how we can serve them. 

But, as Frances said, “you don’t know why until you have that conversation with them.” Those conversations matter – with customers and colleagues alike. Frances has in the past spent time helping to onboard new flight attendants and remains committed to helping the next generation understand what it means to serve a Delta customer: “We want to treat them as if they are in our homes,” Frances said. “They really are our guests.”

Delta has weathered many challenges in our 100-year history – bankruptcy and the COVID-19 pandemic, just to name a couple of the more recent ones. Frances and I both got emotional reflecting on the Centennial anniversary, and the valleys that have made Delta strong so we can enjoy our peaks.

“It’s really remarkable that we’ve made it this far,” Frances said. “I try to pass the torch to the new generation. We can be around for years to come – 100 years, 200 years – we have what it takes. I’m so excited to see what the future brings.”

And so am I.