The Domestic Environment for Delta Airlines

The domestic environment for Delta Airlines is the United States. In the US airline industry, there are more than 100 passenger airlines that operate over 11 million flight departures per year. Delta Airlines is one of the largest in the airline industry and can carry over one-third of the world’s total air traffic. “The US airline industry reported over $160 billion in total revenues, with approximately 545,000 employees and over 8,000 aircraft operating 31,000 flights per day” (Airline Industry Overview, n.d.). There are many economic impacts that can affect the airline industry and range from its direct effects on employment, company profitability and net worth to the indirect effects on the aircraft manufacturing industry, airports, and tourism industries. The economic impacts also extend to virtually every industry that the ability to travel by air generates. The commercial airline industry contributes about 8 percent of the US Gross Domestic Product, according to recent estimates (Airline Industry Overview, n.d.).
One of the twentieth century’s key thinkers is W.W. Rostow. He developed the five stages of economic growth in which all countries must pass to become developed. These stages are traditional society, preconditions to take-off, take-off, drive to maturity, and high mass consumption. His theory suggests that all countries start at one of these stages and eventually climb upward through each stage as they become more developed (Jacobs, J., n.d.).
Delta Airlines is in Stage 5, mass consumption, according to Rostow’s stages of development. Rostow believed that the last stage was occupied by mainly Western countries, in particular the United States. When a country finally reaches the last stage of development,...

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