Delta Airlines 2003 Annual Report Download - page 31

Table of Contents
Our regional jet operations offer service to small and medium-sized cities and enable us to supplement mainline frequencies and service to larger cities. In
2000, our wholly-owned subsidiaries, ASA and Comair, entered into agreements with Bombardier, Inc. to purchase a total of 94 Canadair Regional Jet
("CRJ") aircraft, including 69 CRJ-200 aircraft with a mix of 40 and 50 seats, and 25 CRJ-700 aircraft with 70 seats. ASA and Comair also received options
to purchase 406 CRJ aircraft through 2010. At December 31 2003, all 69 CRJ-200 aircraft have been delivered. During 2004, all remaining firm CRJ-700
aircraft are scheduled for delivery.
On February 27, 2004, we entered into an agreement to purchase 32 CRJ-200 aircraft to be delivered in 2005. In conjunction with this agreement, we
entered into a facility with a third party to finance, on a secured basis at the time of acquisition, the future deliveries of these regional jet aircraft. Borrowings
under this facility (1) will be due in installments for 15 years after the date of borrowing and (2) bear interest at LIBOR plus a margin.
ASA retired its last EMB-120 turbo prop aircraft in August 2003. ASA continues to operate ATR-72 turbo prop aircraft, while Comair operates an all-jet
fleet.
Ground Facilities
We lease most of the land and buildings that we occupy. Our largest aircraft maintenance base; various computer, cargo, flight kitchen and training
facilities; and most of our principal offices are located at or near the Atlanta Airport, on land leased from the City of Atlanta generally under long-term leases.
We own a portion of our principal offices, our Atlanta reservations center and other real property in Atlanta, as well as a limited number of radio transmitting
and receiving sites and certain other facilities.
We lease ticket counter and other terminal space, operating areas and air cargo facilities in most of the airports that we serve. These leases generally run for
periods of less than one year to thirty years or more, and often contain provisions for periodic adjustments of lease rates. At most airports that we serve, we
have entered into use agreements which provide for the non-exclusive use of runways, taxiways, and other facilities; landing fees under these agreements
normally are based on the number of landings and weight of aircraft. We also lease aircraft maintenance facilities at certain airports; these leases generally
require us to pay the cost of providing, operating and maintaining such facilities. In addition to our Atlanta maintenance base, our other major aircraft
maintenance facilities are located at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport, Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport and Salt Lake City
International Airport. We lease marketing, ticket and reservations offices in certain major cities that we serve; these leases are generally for shorter terms than
the airport leases. Additional information relating to our ground facilities is set forth in Note 7 of the Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements.
In recent years, some airports have increased or sought to increase the rates charged to airlines to levels that we believe are unreasonable. The extent to
which such charges are limited by statute or regulation and the ability of airlines to contest such charges has been subject to litigation and to administrative
proceedings before the DOT. If the limitations on such charges
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