The $8+ Billion Partnership: How Delta and Amex Redefined the Business of Flying | Titans and Disruptors
episodePreviously titled “Delta: Bankrupt to Billions” — renamed by the publisher on Aug 5, 2026
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What early experiences shaped Ed Bastian’s leadership style?
Delta's not a low cost air mine. We can't win by trying to provide the cheapest. We have to be able to win by providing the best.
In many respects, Delta Airlines owns the skies. It leads in global airline market cap, domestic market share, and premium customer satisfaction rankings.
How did Delta navigate bankruptcy and what were the key turnaround moves?
This is the same company that was bankrupt just two decades ago. Delta CEO Ed Bastion played a central role in the airlines turnaround to become the most profitable airline in the U.S.
When you're at the bottom and you're you're looking up, you don't know how deep you have to go.
Bastion has been with Delta for almost 30 years and has a CEO for almost 10, which makes him the longest-serving active CEO among major US airlines. Within the turbulent airline industry, one that's sensitive to everything from passing TikTok trends to international war, Bastion is steered with a steady hand.
Why does Delta focus on a people‑first culture and how does it drive performance?
He's led Delta to expansive growth in premium travel, fueled in part by a lucrative Amex partnership and significant investment in branding and experiences.
Only one in five people in the world have ever been on an airplane. Let's find ways to make it affordable, available, accessible, sustainable.
Internally, Bastion prioritizes his people. The company has shared billions with its employees during an annual profit sharing celebration.
How did the billion‑dollar profit‑sharing program originate and impact employees?
And Delta regularly ranks on Fortune's 100 Best Companies to Workforce. I sat down with Ed at Delta's home base in Atlanta to learn how he leads and where he plans on taking the company in the future. I'm Alison Chantal, and this is Fortune 500, Titans and Disruptors of Industry. We'll be back with Ed after a message from our sponsor.
Fortune spoke with Deloitte US CEO Jason Gersadis on maximizing AI agents and what CEOs should consider as they assess and prioritize use cases for AI.
What makes the Delta‑American Express partnership so lucrative and sustainable?
This is on the topic of every CXO conversation I'm a part of. And I think the thought process has to be looking for high-impact areas that may not be necessarily the most glamorous or high-profile functional areas, but are uh ripe for automation and use of this technology to create efficiencies as well as innovation. And over time, uh AI agents will be also in customer face. And growth-oriented domains. In our case, uh Deloitte, we're using it within our finance organization, looking at you know very mundane processes like expense management and working capital management.
How is Delta balancing AI innovation with its people‑first philosophy?
We're seeing other organizations using it in call centers and with software development that can be uh automated. What are the key elements for successfully implementing AI agents? It comes down to intentionality. And so I think that intentionality in going functional area by functional area in concert with business and IT leadership of an enterprise, it needs to be a mainstream business planning effort that's budgeted, that's uh KPIs are developed, and there's real accountability for uh uh actual business outcomes and impact because of agentic capabilities.
Ed, thank you so much for being with us today.
What are Delta’s plans for sustainable travel, flying taxis, and future growth?
Yeah. It's a pleasure, as always. You're a bit of an unlikely CEO on paper in terms of running an airline because you hadn't even stepped foot on an airplane until you were twenty five. Exactly. That has changed quite a bit, I am sure.
What leadership advice does Ed Bastian give to aspiring CEOs?
And you are the oldest of nine children. Yep. You grew up at a house with twelve people, one and a half bathrooms, fighting your sisters for the bathroom slot for two minutes at a time. How did that prepare you for leadership for everything you're doing today.
First of all, thanks for having us. Well, it wasn't uh as as crazy as that might sound. Uh you know, it felt normal. That's all we all we knew. Um, but yeah, I I think it's the oldest of a of nine in a a large family and my parents set of expectations and standards for all of us and as the oldest you're intended to set the th the bar and keep the bar high for your siblings. People are looking at you, people are looking up to you and you're the first to go through, you know, whether it's going to high school, going to college, getting a job. Fortunately all nine of us are still around.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What early experiences shaped Ed Bastian’s leadership style?
0:01–0:17
2
How did Delta navigate bankruptcy and what were the key turnaround moves?
0:17–0:51
3
Why does Delta focus on a people‑first culture and how does it drive performance?
0:51–1:15
4
How did the billion‑dollar profit‑sharing program originate and impact employees?
1:15–1:53
5
What makes the Delta‑American Express partnership so lucrative and sustainable?
1:53–2:29
6
How is Delta balancing AI innovation with its people‑first philosophy?
2:29–3:07
7
What are Delta’s plans for sustainable travel, flying taxis, and future growth?
3:07–3:20
8
What leadership advice does Ed Bastian give to aspiring CEOs?
3:20–43:41