Meet the Delta captain who chartered an Airbus to take 112 friends on a retirement flight to Hawaii

DELTA AIRBUS A330-323 N808NW (MSN 0591)

Keith Rosenkranz went to high school next to the north runway at Los Angeles International Airport.

"On rainy days, I would sit in the second-story window of my high school and just watch the planes take off and land," he told Business Insider. "And that was kind of a dream that I wanted to do that one day." Throughout his 33 years as a Delta Air Lines pilot, Rosenkranz would dip the plane's wing toward his old school every time he took off from LAX.

"There might be a young boy or young girl that's sitting in that window that's dreaming of flying just the way I did," he said. On the 28th of February, the 64-year-old dipped the wing of an Airbus A330neo for the last time as part of what may just be the coolest retirement party ever.

After 16 months of planning, Rosenkranz chartered the widebody jet from Delta to transport 112 friends and family members. Aviation news sites including Simple Flying and One Mile at a Time reported on the charter after it gained attention on X.

Delta's A330-900 has 281 seats, though Rosenkranz said he chose the number of guests because he used a transportation company with two buses that could seat 56 people. Passengers came from different stages of his life: people from grade school through to college and the Air Force, Delta coworkers, and Texas neighbors.

Rosenkranz said he got the idea in October 2022 because many of his coworkers' retirements were disrupted by the pandemic.

"Going back to when we were dealing with COVID, a lot of the pilots didn't get a final flight that they wanted," he said. "We canceled so many flights to Europe. One of my buddies, all he could fly was Atlanta to Orlando and back. He got one ticket for his wife, and that was it."

He called a friend in Delta's charter division with the idea, who told him: "Nobody's ever done that before." Rosenkranz managed to negotiate a lower price than was first offered after pointing out that he was an employee rather than a professional sports team like the usual customers.

He told BI it cost him "a good year's salary," but added: "You can't put a price on something that was that big. You think about being able to go out that way and take all your family and friends on a whirlwind journey. You don't want to be the richest man in the graveyard one day."
Dallas to LA to Hawaii

Rosenkranz described the trip as "very emotional," especially when he and his family arrived at Dallas Fort Worth Airport about 6 a.m. "There are 50-some people in the gate area, and I just broke down," he said.

"Then when we got out to the jet and they had it all decorated with pictures and other things, that was emotional a second time," he added.

In Los Angeles, the jet was welcomed with a water cannon salute, which has become rarer because of the city's water restrictions. Rosenkranz said he was only the second pilot in nine years to receive the honor. The trip went on to Hawaii. It needed four pilots because regulations prohibit flying both a domestic and ocean-crossing trip in one day.

Rosenkranz said he met the pilot who served as his first officer on the trip when they were 16-year-old box boys at Safeway.