Fourteen years ago, Delta bought an oil refinery for $150 million. Now it’s worth billions, but it’s not enough.
But almost a decade prior to that, Delta made a more obscure (at the time) announcement with regard to oil – they would process it.
In 2012, when Delta Air Lines announced it was buying the Trainer, Pennsylvania refinery for $150 million and spending another $100 million to convert it to maximize jet fuel production, people laughed. Airlines don’t own refineries. That’s not their core business – after all, they are really loyalty programs that happen to fly planes. It’s a distraction. It’s a gamble on commodity prices and an operational complexity that an already difficult business doesn’t need to incorporate. The analyst community largely dismissed it as a curious sideshow.
A great solo travel tip spotted this week on Live and Let's Fly.
