The news: Delta Air Lines is launching a media network. The airline told Adweek it is “building new media capabilities” and hiring for several roles but declined to provide additional details.

Delta hired Keri Paison to lead the division. Paison previously led retail media network development at Deloitte Digital and served as associate director of strategy and analysis at Digitas North America.

Zooming out: Delta is far from the first travel company to turn its customer relationships and first-party data into a high-margin advertising business.

• Marriott first launched a media network in 2022 before expanding and rebranding it as Marriott Media in June 2025.
• United Airlines launched Kinective Media in 2024 and began licensing its ad technology to other carriers last year, starting with JetBlue.
• Expedia Group launched its own media network in 2024, building on an advertising business it had operated for 20 years.

Delta brings significant advantages to the table. It flew more than 200 million passengers in 2025, posted 19% growth in loyalty and related revenues in its most recent quarter, and has operated a co-branded card with American Express for three decades. In Q2 alone, Delta received $2.4 billion from American Express, up 16% YoY, driven by accelerating card acquisitions and a seventh straight quarter of double-digit growth in cardholder spending. That relationship gives Delta a sizable base of loyal customers and valuable insights into how they spend.

Why it matters: Travel commerce media is a small but growing category within the commerce media ecosystem. We expect US travel commerce media spending to jump 22.4% to $2.38 billion this year and continue growing at a double-digit pace through 2028.

The timing also makes sense for Delta. With the macro environment pressuring travel demand and rising jet fuel prices squeezing airline margins, advertising offers a potentially high-margin revenue stream that isn’t directly tied to selling more seats.

Our analyst take: “The interesting question isn’t whether Delta has valuable data,” said Sarah Marzano, EMARKETER principal analyst, retail media. “It clearly has signals around destination, frequency, loyalty, and purchase behavior that advertisers would value.”

She said the bigger challenge is reach, particularly whether it can create enough opportunities to activate those signals at scale. “Unlike retailers, travel companies don’t have a built-in base of endemic brands whose products they sell, so Delta has to convince advertisers outside of travel that its data and access to travelers offer something they can’t get elsewhere. That makes off-platform activation and measurement more important to the long-term opportunity than simply putting more ads in front of passengers.”

This content is part of EMARKETER’s subscription Briefings, where we pair daily updates with data and analysis from forecasts and research reports. Our Briefings prepare you to start your day informed, to provide critical insights in an important meeting, and to understand the context of what’s happening in your industry. Non-clients can click here to get a demo of our full platform and coverage.