France Knights Delta Sales Exec for Role in Normandy Legacy Flights for Veterans

Delta Air Lines Inc.’s Virginie Durr has spent the last four years honoring American heroes by helping them return to the battlefields where they forged freedom for Europe. 

Now, she’s joined some of those same veterans in receiving the French government’s highest decoration, the Legion of Honor. 

French Ambassador Philippe Étienne on Sept. 16 bestowed the “gratitude of the French nation” upon Virginie Durr, enterprise sales manager at Delta, in a ceremony at the Delta Flight Museum. 

Ms. Durr is a native of Normandy, the French region whose beaches allied forces stormed on D-Day in 1944. Her personal heritage is entwined with this landmark event, as her grandmother was liberated during the June 6 siege on German-controlled France. 

In 2022, she spearheaded Delta’s partnership with the Best Defense Foundation and Michelin to fly some of the last surviving veterans to a place where citizens keep their service — and the sacrifices of those who lost their lives — always front of mind. 

“They instilled in me that sense of gratitude that we should continue to have,” Ms. Durr told Global Atlanta during a Macon event celebrating global connections in February.

The project took on a special significance this year, as it coincided with Delta’s 100th birthday. A year earlier, the 80th D-Day anniversary had seen some Atlanta-based veterans flown to Normandy to receive their Legion of Honor decorations directly from French President Emmanuel Macron. 

“It is a personal and professional pride project for me,” Ms. Durr told Global Atlanta and a larger audience during the event at Wesleyan College. 

The idea came about after Ms. Durr watched “The Girl Who Wore Freedom” during the pandemic, a documentary that shows how France remembers its heroes from World War II. Delta, meanwhile, still had some planes grounded in 2022 as international traffic recovered from the pandemic, and Ms. Durr wondered whether one of them could be put to use for an honor flight.

While executives have consistently recognized Ms. Durr as the force behind the initiative, she has always pointed to their support for the vision, and the broader team effort that made this herculean task a reality. 

For one, there was the challenge of landing a Boeing 767 at Deauville, an airport built in 1970 without a thought that its single runway would one day receive an American jetliner carrying a cadre of decorated centenarians. A special ramp had to be sourced, and other accommodations were necessary for the group.

“The difference is what (the airport) said in that meeting when we arrived — ‘You are bringing our heroes home. This is your city and this is your airport,’” she said. 

During the decoration ceremony in September, she continued to point to the “spirit of collaboration” that brought the project about and now sustains it. 

“I share this honor with every one of you. Your pride and heart make this mission possible and unforgettable. You understand that this is much more than a flight — it’s a tribute,” she said.

Those lessons are now being paid forward. Ms. Durr stays in contact with the veterans, many of whom have become friends, and this year, for the first time, 14 college students traveled with the group of returnees to hear their stories in Normandy through the NextGen project. In addition, five students from Dutchtown High School in Atlanta and five more from Atlanta International School also traveled with the group to deepen their understanding of this vital history.

Beyond her role at Delta, Ms. Durr sits on the board of directors of the French-American Chamber of Commerce Southeast and is a  French Foreign Trade Advisor nominated by the prime minister of France.