If Delta's Going To Make A Move, `It's Now Or Never'

Thomas K. Stewart, Delta Air Lines' point man in Berlin, wasn't worried when Delta's inaugural flight 67 took off from Berlin's Tegel Airport on May 3 headed for Atlanta, via Hamburg. After all, it was the culmination of years of meticulous planning.

Delta had carefully nurtured the Hamburg market before adding the Berlin spur. It had crunched numbers, pampered German tour operators, and generally proved to itself that it could turn a profit long before flight 67 ever rolled onto the runway. The new 218-seat Boeing 767 widebody had only 52 passengers aboard when it lifted off from Berlin. But after boarding travelers at Hamburg, it headed west over the Atlantic virtually full. "Not bad for our first week here in Berlin," says a pleased Stewart. Not bad at all.