How Delta is Leveraging External Risk Intelligence

I had the opportunity to speak with Kevin Takiar, who leads Delta’s third-party risk management program, to explore how Interos.ai supports Delta’s procurement and risk objectives. 

Delta’s procurement footprint is vast; its annual spend exceeds $30B and is organized across several distinct domains: technical procurement (aircraft and bolted-on components), fuel procurement, and corporate procurement (the “long tail” of suppliers, including onboard products, corporate services, healthcare benefits, hotels, and large IT portfolios).

The Challenge: Third-Party Risk is Ever-Changing

Historically, Delta emphasized enterprise risk, safety, and security as “job number one.” In recent years, third-party risk has demanded equal attention due to the pandemic disruptions, tariffs, macroeconomic and geopolitical shifts, and rapidly increasing cyber threats affecting even N-tier suppliers. Interos provides the essential data required to evaluate risk across financial, cybersecurity, product entity, and trade domains.

Why Interos

Delta recognized that near-real-time external intelligence, continuous monitoring, and multi-tier mapping could not be built solely in-house. Interos was selected (and the relationship dates back to 2019) to augment and leverage Delta’s internally owned data, workflows, and performance repositories.

“We own our performance data… But given that, we have to augment it with real-time intelligence from a third party… Interos aggregates these sources.”

6 years later, Kevin represents Delta on the customer advisory committee, serving as a voice to ensure that Interos develops solutions to solve customers’ current and upcoming challenges. 

Real-World Impact: Decoupling, Tariffs, and Onboard Products

One of the biggest outcomes of Delta’s transformation is the shift in onboard product sourcing. Historically, items such as paper goods, uniforms, amenity kits, and plastics carried on board were sourced in China and Southeast Asia, leading to a concentration of risk. Interos-enabled intelligence and internal strategy supported decoupling and material changes. 

“It’s an opportunity to remove plastic… a big success story for Delta… we are reducing 7,000,000 lbs of plastic per year… with the new cup that holds both hot and cold beverages, we’re also reducing SKUs and weight on each aircraft.”

Looking Ahead: Proactive, Two-Way Partnerships

Delta’s 2026 focus shifts from reactive crisis handling to proactive co-development with suppliers, aiming to be the preferred customer, exploring equity stakes and joint investments where data shows mutual advantage (like the onboard cup initiative). Interos continues to serve as the external intelligence layer that, combined with Delta’s substantial internal data, provides the necessary external information and confidence to develop these forward-looking strategies.

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