What flies beneath your seat on Delta might surprise you

The service enables anyone to show up at a DASH office with a package less than 16 ounces and get it on the next flight out, subject to Transportation Security Administration regulations.

TSA “known shippers” can send up to 100-pound parcels — but no, you can’t use DASH to send the golf clubs you couldn’t check onto your flight.

Delta was the first airline to launch the service back in 1970 in Atlanta, based on the acronym “Delta Airlines Special Handling,” said Vishal Bhatnagar, head of Delta Cargo’s global operations.

It’s still a “flagship” product of Delta Cargo, which is set to be a billion-dollar segment this year, he told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

And mirroring Atlanta-based Delta’s passenger network, Atlanta is also the busiest location for DASH and Delta Cargo.

Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC

Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC

“The beauty of DASH is that we can do coast-to-coast, same-day service,” Bhatnagar said. “If you can give us a package at 8 o’clock in the morning at (New York) JFK, by the afternoon it can be (in) Los Angeles.”

And then you can pick it up at the airport within an hour of the flight landing — all for a price, of course. Sending a parcel less than 16 ounces from Atlanta to Seattle costs nearly $100.

DASH and the slightly faster DASH Critical may represent just about 5% of Delta Cargo’s revenue, but it has much opportunity for growth, he said.

And key to that will be the operation’s new tracking technology that allows customers to track packages in real time on the Delta website, he said.

A spokesperson told the AJC this “Delta Cargo Pulse” technology, which sticks onto packages, leverages cellular, GPS and Wi-Fi, will provide real-time shipping visibility.

It’s part of a broader arms race by shipping firms looking to offer customers even more precise information about their supply chains.

Atlanta-based UPS, for example, has put an RFID tracking label on every package.

Delta has spent the last year and a half expanding the technology to cover about 85% of its DASH and DASH Critical traffic, Bhatnagar said.

They plan is to continue growing its footprint, including internationally through other products, he said. (DASH must remain a domestic product because of international regulations.)

Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC

Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC

The airline is a “first mover” in it, Bhatnagar said. “We are very excited about this.”

“More and more customers have the demand … for expediting on supply chain,” he said. “We are seeing that especially for smaller shipments: A) They don’t have lead times, and B) These things are expensive. People don’t want inventories of stock on the shelves.”

A company within a company

Delta Cargo is like a smaller company within a company, Bhatnagar said, with its own operations center and support functions. It just shares the planes.

As a result it has a satellite operations team sitting in Delta’s passenger Network Operations Center, which runs the airline’s global network.

While DASH parcels function like baggage in an airport complex, Delta Cargo has warehouses, trucks and a whole other layer of complexity to enable it to carry 2.2 billion cargo tons per year of everything from fresh produce and flowers to pharmaceuticals.

Just as weather and mechanical issues can derail a passenger’s travel plans, so too can they derail a parcel. And Cargo’s staff must work to reroute their customers’ goods when that happens.

Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC

Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC

Sometimes the team intervenes in ways passengers will never notice, he said.

One example, he recalled, was getting two planes parked at gates side-by-side so a shipment could be handed off quickly for a very tight transfer. Passengers never knew the difference.

Covid brought opportunity

It was during COVID-19 that Delta Cargo really got its moment in the spotlight, Bhatnagar said.

Cargo has “become more visible now. It wasn’t the story before,” said George Musungu, general manager of Delta Cargo Operations at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.

During the pandemic, it “really became the shining star,” he said.

The company was the first to temporarily convert several passenger aircraft into freighters, shipping personal protective equipment and more across the globe.

“That brought Cargo front and center,” Bhatnagar said.

Delta is now paying attention to the “opportunity to really leverage all the space you have in the belly of the aircraft to get extra revenue,” Musungu said.

The segment has been crafting a long-term strategy, Bhatnagar said. It spent the last three years modernizing its operating system.

And its plans for growth track nicely with those of the passenger airline itself.

Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC

Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC

The airline has said its next 100 years will be about global expansion.

The new wide-body planes Delta expects to get 85 of in the years to come will enable that.

And that will mean growth in Cargo as well, Bhatnagar said.

“The focus will be international, the growth will be in international, and most of our revenue from Delta Cargo actually comes from international and on wide bodies,” he said.

“The next five to 10 years we are looking at considerable growth,” Bhatnagar said, though he declined to quantify predictions.

Cargo does have a seat at the network planning table, he said, flagging which routes might generate reliable cargo revenue and improve profitability.

The newly launched flight from Los Angeles to Hong Kong is the newest example, he said. “Hong Kong is the biggest freight market in the world,” Bhatnagar said.

Delta’s route between Los Angeles and Shanghai, which is set to increase frequency this fall, as well as between Taipei and Seattle are others, he said.

“And more to come.”