DELTA APPOINTS SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT FOR EUROPE, MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA

Delta Airlines has promoted Mr. Perry Cantarutti to the newly created position of senior vice president – Europe, Middle East and Africa, a statement from the airline's office in Nigeria has said

Based in Paris, Cantarutti will have accountability for all of Delta's Europe, Middle East and Africa commercial activities, including maximising the long-term growth opportunities for Delta's joint venture agreement with Air France KLM – the industry's largest trans-Atlantic alliance.

An airline professional with 18-years industry experience, Cantarutti joined Northwest Airlines in 1992, according to the statement.

Following the airline's merger with Delta, he was named vice president, reservation sales and customer care in July 2008. In this role he was responsible for the management of Delta's 11 North America offices and nine overseas offices as well as customer care. Prior to this, Cantarutti was vice president of reservations sales and services, for Northwest from May 2006.

It really is a human business, because proposition is that you can do more face-to-face, you can convey more emotion, you can accomplish things in person that you can't by way of email or even a phone call.

So, travel really satisfies a very human need: togetherness. And that makes our industry a pretty exciting place to be, and it keeps me here.'

Cantarutti became interested in the airline industry at an early age.

'I grew up in California but my brother and I would spend time in the summers in South Carolina, and we always flew Delta via Atlanta. I remember one of those departures I turned to my brother and said, 'if one of us worked for Delta, we could come back all the time.' And ever since then, it became sort of a goal to work in the airline business, and specifically at Delta.'