Delta CEO Anderson to retire

Delta Air Lines announced Wednesday that Richard Anderson will retire May 2 as CEO and become executive chairman of the carrier’s board of directors.

Ed Bastian, Delta’s president, will succeed Anderson as CEO. And Glen Hauenstein, executive vice president, will become president.

“Richard has been an outstanding leader and CEO,” said Dan Carp, board chairman. “His unique combination of strategic and operating skills, plus his commitment to employees, corporate culture, customers and shareholders has redefined Delta and led to an entirely new and better way of flying around the world.”

Anderson, who assumed the role of Delta’s CEO in 2007, helped guide Delta through a merger with Northwest that closed in 2008. Despite widespread concerns about combining two disparate workforces, the merger went smoothly without any major hitches. It remains the standard against which most other modern airline mergers have been judged.

Since merging with Northwest, Delta’s operation has become the envy of most of its U.S. rivals. Under Anderson, Delta has risen to the top of big U.S. "legacy" carriers in terms of on-time performance and customer satisfaction.

Anderson’s business acumen has been widely credited with restoring financial stability to the carrier and with lifting Delta above peers American and United to become the USA’s most respected global carrier.

Anderson has also been a combative presence at Delta, leading the charge that rival airlines from Qatar and United Arab Emirates are subsidized by their governments to compete unfairly against U.S. carriers.

In contrast to other major airlines, Anderson opposed a congressional proposal to privatize the air-traffic control system that is now part of the Federal Aviation Administration, out of concern it would disrupt progress in making flights more reliable as traffic grows.

Delta promotes its low rate of flight cancellations and high rate of on-time arrivals, as measured by the Transportation Department's Bureau of Transportation Statistics.

Delta in January passed United to become the USA’s No. 2 carrier as measured by revenue passenger miles, a standard industry measure. Delta trails only American, which became the biggest carrier last year following its merger with US Airways.

Delta is headquartered in Atlanta, where it operates a major hub that has helped make the city’s airport the busiest in the world.

Delta also operates U.S. hubs or focus cities in Cincinnati, Detroit, Los Angeles, Minneapolis/St. Paul, New York LaGuardia, New York JFK, Salt Lake City and Seattle.