Name: Perry Cantarutti
Title: Senior vice president, alliances
Company, city: Delta Air Lines; Atlanta, Georgia
Number of employees: 80,000 company-wide; 50 in Alliances department
Recent project: Consolidating our two trans-Atlantic joint ventures into a single partnership that now offers more than 340 destinations
First job: Analyst, domestic yield management
Little-known fact about you: At age 12 I started a small business selling coffee and pastries at an Italian film festival organized by my father. More than 40 years later the festival still runs, though I no longer drink coffee!
Your Business
What innovations or initiatives do you foresee in the industry over the next few years? Airlines are investing heavily in technology to restore the ease of travel and give customers greater choice and personalization. Examples include next-generation digital platforms and apps, RFID baggage tracking, and fully biometric passenger experiences such as the deployment at ATL’s Terminal F. These trends are just beginning; we expect continued focus on digital integration, seamless touchpoints and personalized services.
Best career advice you’ve received: Accepting an international assignment changed the trajectory of my career. It was a difficult decision at the time, but living and working in four cities across decades broadened my perspective and opened opportunities I wouldn’t have had otherwise.
What advice would you give someone starting out in the field? Concentrate on the journey rather than fixating on a specific destination. The airline industry offers varied and unexpected career paths — take advantage of those opportunities, learn at every step, apply your skills and enjoy the experience. Career progression will follow naturally when you stay curious and adaptable.
Perry Cantarutti as a Traveler
Favorite travel memory or story: My love of travel is rooted in the people I met on my first international trip. As a boy my parents took my brother and me to Italy to meet our extended family. I still remember our flight on a TWA Boeing 707 and the uncertainty of arriving in a place where I didn’t speak the language and hadn’t met our relatives. Within days, though, sharing meals, stories and laughter with cousins made me feel at home. That trip connected me to my roots and inspired a lifelong passion for travel and a career in aviation.
One travel tip you cannot live without: Keep your seat belt fastened even when the seat belt sign is off.
Best advice for business travelers: Whenever possible, carve out a little time on work trips to explore the city you’re visiting, even if it’s only a few hours. Those moments refresh you and enrich the overall travel experience.
About Delta Air Lines
How have worldwide alliances affected the travel industry, and what are the most important aspects of the SkyTeam alliance for Delta? Alliances enable airlines to connect customers to a far broader network than any single carrier can operate alone. For customers, that means greater reach, more seamless itineraries and improved connectivity. For airlines, alliances like SkyTeam help create consistency across member carriers, enhancing the passenger experience and operational cooperation.
When it comes to partnerships, what does Delta look for? We seek partners who share our core values: a commitment to the customer experience and a positive culture for employees. We also value carriers with strong networks and respected brands in their home markets. Every partner brings unique strengths, and one of the greatest benefits is the opportunity to learn from each other to improve service and operations.
What’s to come for Delta and SkyTeam this year? A key business priority is to deliver a more consistent experience across Delta and our partners. Wherever customers encounter friction transitioning between carriers — what we call a seam — our goal is to remove it. That means streamlining processes and deploying technology that better connects member airlines. SkyTeam will support this effort by helping to coordinate standards and shared solutions that improve the customer journey.