Summary
Delta is an airline that regularly chooses to celebrate its employees, special causes or affiliations by painting special liveries on its aircraft fleet.
Some of these schemes are quite striking, and take advantage of the modern wide-body aircraft types.
Others are more subtle.
In this guide we’ll look at the special aircraft liveries in Delta’s aircraft fleet.
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Team USA
To mark Delta’s support of the Team USA Olympics and Paralympics teams, two of its aircraft wear a special livery with large titles. They are:
N411DX Airbus A330-941
N521DN Airbus A350-941
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Employee Recognition Schemes
Delta is a proud supporter of its employees and their team effort in advancing the company. It has marked this on Airbus A321 N391DN which has large ‘Thank You’ titles made up of all employee names at the time.
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Breast Cancer Support
Delta has long supported the cause of breast cancer awareness and the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. At present Boeing 767-400ER N845MH wears this special ribbon livery to mark this.
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Spirit of Delta
For years, Boeing 767-200 N102DA was known as the Spirit of Delta. This aircraft was paid for by contributions from employees at a time when the airline was struggling financially.
Over the years the aircraft wore a variety of special paint schemes.
Now retired and on display at the Delta Flight Museum, a new aircraft has been chosen as the ‘Spirit of Delta’. This time it is Airbus A350 N502DN, but only wears a small sticker under the cockpit rather than a full special livery.
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SkyTeam Livery Aircraft
In addition to the special liveries on Delta aircraft shown above, the airline also marks its association with the SkyTeam Alliance by having painted three of its Boeing 737-800 and one 767-400ER aircraft in the silver livery.
They are:
N3758Y Boeing 737-832
N3761R Boeing 737-832
N381DN Boeing 737-832
N844MH Boeing 767-432ER
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Delta’s Special Liveries from the Past
Delta, like many airlines, has been painting special liveries on its aircraft for many years.
Often, after the promotional scheme has served its purpose, the aircraft will be repainted back into the standard airline livery.
Here are some of Delta’s special liveries from the past.
Delta was the Official Airline of the 1996 Olympic Games. It painted one of its MD-11 aircraft, N812DE, in this Centennial Spirit scheme.
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Boeing 767-300ER N171DZ wore this special scheme promoting Habitat for Humanity Force for Global Good.
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A picture of the original Spirit of Delta Boeing 767 in one of its special liveries.
Title image (c) Mark Bess
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