Delta’s roots are as a crop duster company combating boll weevil infestations. Its inaugural flight under the Delta name was to Jackson, Mississippi. It moved its headquarters to Atlanta in 1941, and the airline’s dominant presence throughout the Southeast through its headquarters hub gave rise to the old maxim, “Whether you’re going to heaven or hell you have to connect in Atlanta.”
Nonetheless they grew to become, at one point, the world’s largest airline.