A Brief Guide To Delta Air Lines’ Trading Cards

Did you know that for years, Delta Air Lines pilots have had secret trading cards of the airline’s aircraft that they can hand out to passengers? Apparently, most people did not know of the trading card initiative until a 20-second video went viral on TikTok in November.

In the short video, a digital creator named Sarowar asks a Delta Air Lines pilot if he can have a trading card. The pilot agrees and asks his first officer if he has any of the company’s trading cards. The co-pilot says he has and gives them to the pilot, who then hands two of the cards to Sarowar.

The TikTok video has had more than 18 million views

Delta was probably not expecting its short video to gain so much attention, but as of December 4th, it had been viewed more than 18 million times and received two million likes. Intrigued by the promotion and wondering why the short video had become so popular, Travel & Leisure magazine approached Delta Air Lines for comment. In reply, the Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL) based airline said:

“When they’re not busy preparing for flight or flying our customers to their next adventure, our pilots carrying these fan-favorite cards are more than happy to hand one out to any customer who asks nicely as they look to add to, or begin, their newest favorite collection.”

While we did not know about it, the Delta Air Lines trading card initiative has been around for more than 20 years, with designs being changed every five years to keep up with how the fleet of aircraft evolves. According to the aviation data and statistics website ch-aviation, Delta Air Lines current fleet is made up of the following 17 types of aircraft:

• Airbus A220-100
• Airbus A220-300
• Airbus A319-100
• Airbus A320-200
• Airbus A321-200
• Airbus A321NX
• Airbus A330-300
• Airbus A330-900neo
• Airbus A350-900
• Boeing B717-200
• Boeing 737-800
• Boeing 737-900ER
• Boeing 757-200
• Boeing 757-300
• Boeing 767-300ER
• Boeing 767-400ER

In total, Delta Air Lines has 974 aircraft, of which just 79 are listed as inactive. Regarding future deliveries, Delta Air Lines has orders for 304 Airbus and Boeing planes. According to Delta, pilots carry cards that match the aircraft type they are flying.

The current collection comprises 11 aircraft types that an in-house design team showed pilots, asking them to choose the winning designs.

Frontier Airlines also has trading cards

Interestingly, Delta is not the only airline that has trading cards, with Denver, Colorado-headquartered low-cost carrier Frontier Airlines also having cards it hands out to passengers. Back in the 1990s, Frontier Airlines sought a way to brand itself to appeal to passengers and gain recognition. Someone in the airline’s marketing department came up with the brilliant idea of painting animals on the aircraft’s tails.

Photo: Frontier Airlines

By concentrating on rare and endangered species, the airline not only got people to notice its planes but also raised awareness among the public about concerns regarding the plight of some of them. To highlight how the animals are being threatened, on the aircraft depicting endangered species, Frontier printed baseball card-sized cards about the animals and their habitat.

How did trading cards originally come about?

First called trade cards back in the 1800s, the colorful cards were used to promote products like tobacco. Eventually, the Topps Chewing Gum company began printing cards depicting baseball players. Baseball cards became hugely popular with collectors who would pay unbelievable sums of money for certain players like Babe Ruth and Mickey Mantle.

A more recent craze involving trading cards was the Pokémon Trading Card Game, created in Japan, based on the 1996 Game Boy video game by Nintendo. However, thanks to technological advances and the fact we all have smartphones, trading cards are mostly a thing of the past.

Well almost. It’s nice to see that Delta Air Lines and Frontier still have cards that travelers can ask for and collect.