Delta Air Lines (NYSE: DAL) today announced Susumu Saiga has joined its Tokyo office as sales manager - Japan and will be responsible for all sales and marketing activities, including the promotion and sales of Delta’s Tokyo-Atlanta service, as well as a variety of markets available through Delta’s codeshare on Korean Air and Northwest Airlines.

In making the announcement, Ricardo Okamoto, Delta field director, Pacific, said, “Saiga-san is a 29-year veteran in the airline industry. He comes to Delta with 25 years of experience in sales and reservations with Northwest Airlines in Osaka. For four years, he was the head of Northwest’s operations in Western Japan. He joined Delta in 1998 with the launching of Portland - Fukuoka, and relocated to Nagoya when Delta moved its Pacific gateway from Portland to Los Angeles. He left Delta during the reorganization and we are very pleased to have him back with us.

“Saiga-san is widely trusted and respected in the travel industry. His business background and his leadership experience will be critical as we continue to aggressively execute our strategy,” Okamoto said.

Saiga graduated from Kwansei Gakuin University and Carlisle Air Training School.

Delta announced earlier this year it will introduce its custom-designed Boeing 777 aircraft on daily flights between Tokyo’s Narita Airport and Hartsfield Atlanta International Airport beginning in January 2004.

“We will be promoting this service, which has occurred as a result of customer demand,” said Saiga. We are pleased to replace our present MD-11 aircraft with our wide-body Boeing 777 flagship. The aircraft was designed exclusively with our long-haul passengers in mind, especially those traveling from Japan to Atlanta, the world’s busiest international airport.”

Delta Air Lines, the world’s second largest airline in terms of passengers carried and the leading U.S. carrier across the Atlantic, offers 6,130 flights each day to 453 destinations in 82 countries on Delta, Song, Delta Shuttle, Delta Connection and Delta`s worldwide partners. Delta is a founding member of SkyTeam, a global airline alliance that provides customers with extensive worldwide destinations, flights and services. For more information, please go to delta.com.
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