Atlanta's Delta Flight Museum set to reopen after multimillion-dollar face-lift
Lie-flat suites with sliding privacy doors. Wraparound 4K screens. Bluetooth connectivity and high-speed internet.
When we talk about the latest, most significant innovations in air travel, it often comes down to those onboard bells and whistles airlines are adding at a rapid pace in an effort to woo customers — more than 18 million of whom traveled by plane in the U.S. in just the last week.
Flying is such an integral part of our lives today — particularly for those of us passionate about travel — that it's easy to lose sight of how remarkable airplanes and the concept of flight are in the first place.
Next month, America's oldest airline will reopen the doors to a museum that tells the story of those humble beginnings — and celebrates the mode of transportation that's quite literally opened up the entire world to those with the yearning (and the points and miles) to see it.
Read more: Getting started with points, miles and credit cards to travel
Delta reopens museum
On April 7, Delta Air Lines will welcome visitors back to its namesake museum, located on the campus of its hometown airport.
For the last two months, the Delta Flight Museum has been closed as crews hustled through a $16 million face-lift that brought new interactive exhibits to the facility, which sits a short, five-minute drive from the terminals at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL).
The timing of the renovation of the 30-year-old destination — a must-visit for any aviation enthusiast — is as intentional as the selection of artifacts found inside: It's part of a yearlong celebration of Delta's 100th birthday.
The museum aims to tell the story of the Atlanta-based carrier's first century in operation.
"We really wanted the place to look spectacular," Nina Thomas, director of exhibits and public programs, said Tuesday. "We really wanted to have more interaction. There's obviously a lot of big planes to look at, but kind of doing little experiences on a bite-sized level."
Touring the revamped facilities
To Thomas' point: Yes, there are planes, although the aircraft aren't new — themselves, or to the museum.
Outside, guests can't miss the Boeing 747, a holdover attraction featuring one of Delta's Queens of the Skies that flew its last flight in 2015.
Inside, though, curators made updates to the walk-through tour of its first-ever Boeing 767. Nicknamed the Spirit of Delta, the jet joined the airline's fleet in 1982 after being purchased in a grassroots effort led by its employees — whom the airline pays tribute to in new onboard media.
Still perhaps the biggest draw for AvGeeks of all ages: the 1980s-era cabin, including those large movie screens that today are a relic thanks to the seatback screens now found on Delta aircraft.
The aircraft has been a staple of the museum since its mid-2000s retirement (and farewell tour, shown below). Crews removed some seats from the Spirit of Delta to make it more accessible for guests using a wheelchair.
New updates and interactive touches
The museum occupies the two oldest hangars on the campus of ATL, the world's busiest airport that's also celebrating its centennial in 2025.
Alongside aircraft from the carrier's earliest days of crop-dusting and far more limited air service, artificial intelligence brings motion to black-and-white photos showing the bustling maintenance that once went on in these buildings — a precursor to the vast, sprawling tech ops center that's now a centerpiece of the airline's Atlanta operation.
A few steps away, kids can climb on a new Airbus-sponsored exhibit that — in addition to a little fun — offers a taste of what it's like to work in aviation.
U.S. plane-maker Boeing sponsored its own moving display of current and past jets flown by Delta, by airlines it absorbed through decades of mergers, and by some of its present-day SkyTeam alliance partners like Korean Air and KLM. Flanking the display: historic route maps from the airline that, for all the changes through the years — continuing this week — has always been helmed in Atlanta.
After proceeding down a tunnel marked by the company's historic "Fly Delta jets" slogan, visitors can take a virtual tour of the carrier's global destinations via an extended reality display — sponsored by American Express, and narrated by a Delta captain.
Nearby, a newly curated exhibit offers dozens of artifacts from predecessor carriers like Northwest Airlines, Pan Am and Northeast Airlines. The oldest piece of history: a wicker chair that once served as the passenger seat on a DC-3, the airline's oldest passenger plane that in 1929 cost customers a whopping $90 per ticket, Delta said — equivalent to nearly $1,700 in 2025 dollars.
Look up and you'll see a Delta mural designed by a student artist at Georgia's Savannah College of Arts and Design.
AvGeeks can try their hand at an enhanced version of Delta's Boeing 737 flight simulator.
Back on the ground level, a touchscreen wall offers an interactive timeline of the airline's history, including everything from its addition of Biscoff cookies to its inflight snacks in 1988 to when it became the first U.S. airline to ban smoking on board in 1995. And, from 2025, there's the centennial livery the carrier debuted last week.
"It's a reflection of how far we've come and, I think most important, it's the people, everywhere you turn," Allison Ausband, Delta's chief people officer, told TPG. "We can all buy the same plane, we can buy the same duvet cover, all the same things, right? But you cannot replicate the Delta people."
From 1925 to 2025 and beyond
Today, much of Delta's focus is on backing up its claim as the most premium U.S. airline: leading the pack with its Delta One Lounge and Sky Club portfolios, its lucrative credit card partnership with American Express, and its premium seating options on board — complemented by a series of new additions in recent years like its free inflight Wi-Fi, and new partnerships announced in January with the likes of YouTube and Uber.
Those sorts of innovations — along with new, emerging types of aircraft and technology — will surely be part of its future, as executives outlined during a splashy keynote event at the Sphere in Las Vegas.
But at a time when you can use your phone to book a state-of-the-art lie-flat seat using SkyMiles earned with a credit card, it's poignant to stop and consider that none of this existed 100 years ago.
"Our first loyalty program was a Flying Colonel," Ausband reflected. "In 1964, the certificate that we gave a flying colonel said, 'Thank you for helping us develop aviation.' And here we are today, whole different place."
The updated museum offers a chance to reflect on just that contrast, beginning April 7.
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