By Mic Wilborn
— October 15th, 2025
At the heart of Delta Air Lines’ mission is delivering safe, reliable, and inspiring journeys at scale. Achieving this requires more than operational excellence alone—it demands clear, dynamic communication that keeps front-line employees empowered while guiding millions of passengers with confidence. Over the past decade, Delta’s Digital Signage Experience (DSX) team has transformed digital signage from a 7-screen pilot in employee breakrooms into a 3,000+ screen, data-infused communications network seen by over half a million people per day, connecting operational teams and customers with the right information at the right time, across office locations and airport concourses worldwide.
Today, this world-class digital signage network not only improves safety and efficiency but also elevates the customer experience, proving how digital signage can be a mission-critical communications channel for a variety of use cases. Ryan Taylor, Business Consultant at Delta Air Lines has been at the heart of elevating both employee and passenger experiences and driving the growth and success of Delta’s signage network—and has deservedly been honored with the Poppulo Impact Award. Over a decade-long partnership with Poppulo, Ryan has helped to transform Delta’s signage network from a test project for employee communications into a key channel with thousands of endpoints supporting more than 70 distinct applications impacting the passenger and employee experiences alike. By ensuring that employees and customers receive timely, role and location-relevant information—from breakrooms to ramps and ticketing lobbies to security queues—Ryan and the DSX team have created stronger connections, safer operations, and a less-stressful, more enjoyable airport experience.
Key Achievements of the DSX Team:
Employee Communications at Scale: Delta’s first use case filled a critical gap for deskless workers. Role-based targeting and local authorship let station leaders publish location-specific updates, making content relevant, trusted, and actionable for teams without regular email access.
Reinforcing Culture in Innovative Ways: After a proof-of-concept project for a large customer-facing signage implementation at LaGuardia was complete, the DSX team had the test sign installed outside of its headquarters. Today, that sign is used to welcome new hires, communicate key updates, and help reinforce the company’s culture.
Operational Breakthroughs—From Paper to Prioritization: In one of its cargo facilities, Delta replaced paper and “first come, first served” ambiguity with real-time screens that display dock doors, airway bills, and flight cutoffs—so crews understood what to load first to meet departure deadlines, saving time and money while also keeping the operation running smoothly.
Improving Ramp Operations and Safety: About 300 outdoor LED RIDS (Ramp Information Display Systems)—rolled out in roughly six months—serve as heads-up displays with departure clocks, remaining bags/passengers, and task status. A single tower command can flip every screen to a flashing “Ramp Closed” alert during weather events, maximizing visibility and reinforcing Delta’s safety culture.
Passenger Experience, Reimagined: Delta’s Big Friendly Lobby Information Displays (BF LIDS), stretch up to 250 feet, layering calm motion backdrops with counter functions, embedded flight info, and Sky Club occupancy. At JFK, adding BF LIDS drove a 7-point NPS improvement for the check-in experience—reducing stress from the first step in the lobby.
Transforming Flight Information Displays: In 2025, Delta launched its Next Gen Flight Information Display System (FIDS) project, migrating more than 1,500 endpoints to Poppulo’s platform. This was more than a technology migration—it was a reinvention of how flight information is delivered. The new FIDS emphasize clarity and consistency across airports, integrating contextual data like Sky Club occupancy and weather maps to reduce passenger stress and improve transparency about flight times. With flexible templates and scalable architecture, Delta now has a future-ready foundation capable of supporting disruption alerts, multilingual layouts, and personalized passenger messaging. This project brought Delta’s total signage network to over 3,600 endpoints.
Improving the Security Queue Experience: Custom, double-sided totems guide customers to the right lane (Sky Priority, PreCheck/CLEAR, General) and surface AI-predicted wait times—from queue entry through TSA—reducing ambiguity and enabling smarter, calmer choices pre-gate and de-stressing the travel experience.
Integration and Accessibility: By combining enterprise standards with local control, Delta ensures content is context-aware and immediately useful—whether informing a breakroom crew, guiding a family at check-in, or signaling a safety protocol on the ramp. Data-infused design reduces cognitive load and helps everyone make better, faster decisions.
Reflecting on the award, Ryan said, “I’m incredibly honored to receive this recognition, but it’s important to say this is not about me—it’s about our team. We have so many talented people across Delta, from our immediate DSX team to our design and support teams, who work tirelessly to make this vision a reality. This has always been a true partnership with Poppulo, and from day one we’ve felt like we had the ‘A team’ by our side. As Delta has evolved, so has Poppulo, and together we’ve been able to build something extraordinary. To be singled out among so many innovative organizations is humbling, and I couldn’t be prouder of what we’ve accomplished as a team.”
Ruth Fornell, CEO of Poppulo, commended Delta’s achievements, stating, “Delta’s signage network is an example that every organization can learn from. While the sheer scale of what Ryan and the DSX team are doing is truly impressive, it’s the seemingly limitless innovation and strategy they deliver that is making a massive impact across Delta’s passenger-facing and employee-facing use cases. It truly is incredible to see what they are doing with digital signage. I can’t speak highly enough of the work Ryan and the DSX team do and the impact they make—this award is so well-deserved.”
About the Poppulo Impact Awards:
The Poppulo Impact Awards celebrate individuals and organizations that demonstrate excellence in utilizing digital signage to drive value within their companies. This program recognizes innovators who leverage Poppulo’s solutions to achieve significant results and set new standards in their respective fields.