Why Delta Decided to Stop Being the Mean Airline

The cruelty of U.S. airlines has lately become a sore point for travelers—use strong-arm tactics on customers today, and an airline risks a swift explosion of online outrage. Within the industry, however, Delta Air Lines has spent the past year trying to shake a less- visible reputation as a bruising antagonist that fought with other airlines and bureaucrats alike.

As Delta’s Ed Bastian reaches his first anniversary as chief executive officer this month, aviation experts and former regulators say they see signs that the Atlanta-based airline is stepping away from an in-your-face posture that sometimes rankled competitors and annoyed bureaucrats under former boss Richard Anderson. The change in attitude can be traced to the personalities of the CEOs. “Richard was a litigator,” said Mo Garfinkle, a longtime aviation consultant who now works with American Airlines Group Inc. on international matters. Anderson was a Texas prosecutor before resurrecting Delta following its bankruptcy in 2007. “That litigious, strong, ‘I’m right’ approach of Richard is not the same approach that Ed has.”