Delta Air Lines distributes annual profit sharing on Valentine’s Day, literally showing the love. Today’s amount going to employees is $1.4 billion. That’s more profit sharing than all other U.S. airlines combined. Employees are receiving 10.04% of earnings this year, or about 5 weeks of additional pay.
Total profit sharing at Delta over the last decade, including the lean years of the pandemic, exceeds $10 billion. Over the 2014 – 2019 period, Delta paid out more than $1 billion in profit sharing annually. I don’t believe any company, in any industry, has paid out more cash profit sharing in nominal terms than Delta (ever).
CEO Ed Bastian says,
Every day, Delta people prove themselves to be difference makers in this industry. I’m proud to recognize their unmatched professionalism, teamwork and dedication to excellence with one of our strongest profit sharing years in Delta’s history.
Most Delta employees don’t wait five years without raises pending contract talks – while the value of their wages are eaten away by inflation – like at United and American Airlines.
The airline adds monthly bonuses (‘shared rewards’) for hitting operational goals, $1,000 payouts for going through personal finance education, and the airline was the first to introduce boarding pay for flight attendants and did it as a true add-on to existing wages (in contrast, at American, flight attendant leaders recognize that when they got this provision in their new contract it traded off with wages).
It’s a large reason that I frequently that that if I was a frontline employee at American Airlines, United or another U.S. carrier I wouldn’t give up my union (though it’s frequently the case that their representation underperforms), but that if I were at Delta working as a frontline employee I would not want one. Delta leads in compensation. They didn’t furlough any employees during the pandemic, as American and United each furloughed over 10,000.
They’re able to drive a revenue premium in part because their employees are better, they have a better culture, and that’s something that wouldn’t likely be sustained under collective bargaining (though until recently Southwest was able to do so).
American’s union contract for flight attendants will see the same profit sharing formula going forward as Delta’s – but for the foreseeable future will see far lower profit sharing payments. American flight attendants can look at Delta’s payments and divide by five. A year ago an American Airlines flight attendant went viral for advising prospective cabin crew not to take on the career – unless it’s with Delta.
Delta understood from its earliest days that if you take care of people – employees and customers – everything else will fall in place, including for shareholders.
Southwest was created decades after Delta’s formula was obvious but went heavily union fairly quickly – and yet WN generally has pretty good employee relations and good customer service metrics.
Wow, good on you Delta! Spreading the love indeed!
@Tim Dunn — Right on. Profit-sharing is good for employees. Of course, I would take it a step further (and allow the flights to unionize), though we should still celebrate these victories for working people, including crews in the air and on the ground. When companies achieve excess profits, both workers and shareholders alike should benefit (not just the ‘ownership’ class). This is one way we build a better society for all.
Congrats to delta employees
great day for them and Cha-ching!
In 1946, C.E. Woolman said comparing Delta to other companies, (Our)”Airplanes are more or less standard. Fares are uniform. Competitive services are often available. The quality of Delta’s service, the attitude of its people, will determine who gets the business.” “An employee’s devotion to his or her company, dedication to the job and consideration for the customer determine a company’s reputation.” From what I read, this held true when Delta went bankrupt. The then CEO Jerry Grinstein offered employees a buyout if they chose to leave. Those that chose to stay took drastic pay cuts with the promise of “repayment”. A PROMISE of repayment. Seems like Mr. Grinstein’s promise was made and promise kept. I think Delta’s current motto is “Keep Climbing”. Seems like Mr. Bastian and his team are doing just that. Congratulations Delta employees!
More anti-union drivel from this site.
America used to have a middle class where a non-college adult (usually a man) could raise a family because his union wage was adequate.
Union membership used to top 30% of the private workforce. Today it’s less that 8%.
How does the middle class look these days?
Good on Delta for the approach they’ve taken. There’s absolutely zero reason why the precise same profit sharing couldn’t happen with a union…regardless of Gary’s rhetoric. American’s employees may well earn less and Gary implies that’s because they have a union. Yet, he conveniently offers zero evidence to support this premise.
Can’t we talk about sex in airport hotels instead Gary?
Oh, to 1990, EVERY EMPLOYEE, not the “ownership class” gets this profit sharing and the percentage is equal. A union would only require negotiations, cause arguments and cause animosity among each division. “Well, they got … but we only got.” Why mess up a good thing?
@Win Whit
” Seems like Mr. Grinstein’s promise was made and promise kept. I think Delta’s current motto is “Keep Climbing”. Seems like Mr. Bastian and his team are doing just that. Congratulations Delta employees!”
I’ll say again congrats to Delta employees.
But this comment is a bit laughable since Ed Bastian specifically tried to take away the lucrative profit sharing plan from every non-union employee. He broke the promise. Delta ALPA returned it to Delta employees. It certainly wasn’t Mr Bastian or the current DL team.
Always important to remember who has your back. It certainly was not Mr Bastian when it comes to profit sharing. He was well aware of future financial projections when he tried (and did) to eliminate how generous it was.
@Win Whitmire — You can have both a union and profit-sharing. Ask the pilots.
as usual Max shows up to conflate and distort because he can’t stand actual facts.
As part of negotiations for a post bankruptcy contract, one of DL’s proposals was to eliminate profit sharing from PILOTS and convert it to base pay. and DL wanted to do the same for non-pilot employees. The pilots union negotiators wanted to keep the profit sharing – even though they ditched the $2 billion in stock that the company paid ALPA for terminating the DALPA pension plan in chapter 11 – at the cost of billions to DL pilots.
Ironically, it is UNIONS that typically don’t want compensation in the form of profit sharing.
DL did not cut profit sharing for pilots and kept it for non-union employees because DL rarely gives its unionized pilots an advantage that other employees can’t also have.
And Bastian has been the CEO throughout the distribution of the enormous amounts of profit sharing which Gary was written about including post covid.
He also was CEO of DL when DL settled FIRST among the big 4 post covid with eye-popping salary increases that were 2X what little boy Scottie offered UA pilots – who wisely rejected that piece of garbage.
UA pilots aren’t getting anywhere close to the profit sharing DL pilots gets and UA has yet to settle with its flight attendants. In fact, UA’s employee expenses will increase by a half billion dollars/yr – which will significantly erode UA’s profits which still haven’t matched DL’s – on top of 3/4 of a billion in retro payments just to UA FAs.
AA employees won’t get profit sharing equal to DL even if they had the same formula. WN employees used to lead the industry in profit sharing – but we all know that they are no longer the shining star of airline finances – and WN profit sharing is paid to their retirement accounts while DL’s is paid in cash, which CAN be put in retirement accounts up to the limits of the law.
It doesn’t matter whether you like Bastian or not. The fact is that he has been at the helm when DL has paid out a decade’s worth of profit sharing and also negotiated deals before any other big 4 carrier – and set the high bar which other airlines still are trying to match.
1990,
all large DL employee groups did vote on unionization as part of the NW merger – except pilots who were represented by the same union and mechanics because NW had laid off such a high percentage of its workforce that the combined mechanic workforce did not meet the guidelines to require a union election and DL mechanics have never requested a union vote in sufficient numbers.
DL FAs have voted against unionization more times over the past 20 years than most employees ever will while tens of thousands of previously union NW jobs became non-union DL votes as a result of the voting which the combined employees in those work groups did.
Most DL employees HAVE voted regarding unionization and have consistently rejected the idea.
Considering how badly the AFA has screwed up negotiations with UA, they can kiss any hope of unionizing DL FAs goodbye for at least a generation.
None of which changes that contracts for a lot of new boats, cars and renovations are taking place in DL hub cities today.
ALPA is a bit different. IF the pilots make a mistake, some companies might well want their ID badge and the FAA wants their certificate. ALPA is able to stand in the middle and, I’ve heard, will agree with the company or the FAA for/against a pilot. Delta’s ALPA group have had arguments with the company…no doubt. However, unlike other airlines, one doesn’t see overt antipathy and pilots “taking it out on the customers” that is seen at heavily unionized companies. I remember one time that American pilots intentionally started both engines, left the APU running all the time to “punish” the company for whatever grievance they had. Shocking and un-needed. One only has to look at the divisiveness at other airlines when the mechanics want one thing, the flight attendants don’t want to work, the desk jockeys don’t want this or didn’t get that… UNIONS are a pain in the ass. How would a union “improve” on a good thing…especially at $600/month for nothing. The ONLY thing a union wants out of Delta is self preservation…again at $600/month.
As a larger carrier, the overall number is mis-leading – to say that DL gave out $1.4B in Profit Sharing, to grab the spotlight, but that the average was 10%, or about 5 weeks of pay. Salute to them, for running an airline so well, even after the hiccup from the summer. While Alaska is smaller and their performance based pay only totaled $322M…info from Alaska release:
“And we couldn’t be prouder to cap off the year by investing in our people with the largest payout in the history of our Performance-Based Pay (PBP) program. This year, it’s more than 11%, or roughly 6 weeks of additional pay.”
Good to see these 2 carriers investing in their employees.
@Tim
that is one of the most idiotic, ignorant, and ill-informed bit of nonsense I’ve seen. There’s just too much WRONG factually with your entire premise that it’s not worth replying.
Facts are facts. If you have even the slightest bit of financial knowledge, Delta’s decision to remove profit sharing was one of the worst personal choices their employees could’ve made. The person that knows that can see a long term financial forecast and see the financial benefit of what Delta wanted to do.
Delta removed the rich profit sharing from everyone except their two union groups. They ONLY reinstated it to prevent unionization after the pilots kept the rich pay increases and profit sharing.
Thank ALPA, not Ed. Ed was quite clear he didn’t want the profit sharing formula to remain.
But thanks, Tim. You can always be counted on to show up and pontificate about nonsense when my name appears.
Again. Congrats to Delta employees. But make sure you thank the right people if you are one, it’s your pilots and their union, not your leaders.
win,
the FAA does have programs to help improve safety and protect careers for pilots and ALPA does help.
Profit sharing works because it aligns employee interests with that of mgmt – who is ultimately accountable to shareholders.
It isn’t a surprise when pilots at other airlines want to burn extra fuel and slow taxi because the impact of the company’s success or failure in the marketplace doesn’t impact them.
DL pilots despite being unionized have long understood that working w/ management gets them the best compensation. They agreed to the expansion of regional jets and then buying small mainline aircraft when management said regional jets don’t make economic sense any more. AA still outsources way more pilot jobs to regional carriers and UA has no interest in buying a small mainline aircraft to replace hundreds of regional jets and the related jobs.
DALPA rightfully wants DL pilots to fly international flights and had rigid requirements that the company sometimes missed because the market said it wasn’t worth flying flights that would lose money. DL and ALPA changed to a global production agreement and DL is adding more high paying widebody jobs than any other US airline and carries as many if not more passengers on its own metal than its competitors.
Yes, unionization can work with profit sharing and good labor-mgmt relations. but DL has proven that the first ingredient is a happy workforce that focuses on customers and the unionization piece is optional.
as usual, Max, you conflate and manipulate because you can’t accept facts.
DL was never going to allow DL pilots alone to have profit sharing.
Period.
You want to think unions saved the day when it is clear that DL employees won then and win today – because DL mgmt really could care less if their pilots or unionized or not.
They want happy, well paid employees and there was never a thought that pilots would get what would not be given to non-profits.
let’s face it, though. Not a single union has succeeded at unionizing any employee group at DL for very good reasons – which you can’t stand to admit – even while unions have royally screwed up getting higher pay for their employees.
DL pilots KNOW that Ed Bastian has delivered the profits which fuel their profit sharing.
Many DL pilots know full well that they pay for the benefits that non-union employees get for free because DL wants to make sure that pilots get nothing in advantage over non-union employees.
You as a shrill screaming outsider that wishes you had what DL employees have count for precisely nothing esp. when it comes to recounting of facts and history.
It’s frequently mentioned “frontline” here. How much do the other not-frontline departments (like customer service, technology etc) get?
stick to what you know, Tim. It isn’t much of anything to do with Delta history on profit sharing.
it is a guarantee that you will stick to the manipulation and distortion which is all that characterizes your internet presence.
DALPA didn’t save profit sharing for DL employees.
DL mgmt wanted it converted to base pay for all employees including the pilots. DALPA negotiated profit sharing back in which meant that all DL employees gained it.
Bastian IS the CEO that has overseen all of this profit sharing and that is fact that has nothing to do with whether you like him or not.
no union has or will come close to matching what DL has paid its union or non-union employees in profit sharing.
The AFA has missed a generational opportunity to convince DL FAs of the value of unionization. UA FAs are still screwed and UA mgmt will spend a billion dollars when they finally get around to doing for UA FAs what DL FAs have had for years.
Unions, as they are structured in the U.S. and basically, throughout the world, are an affront to individual rights and are usually supported by those whose principles are inconsistent.
Also, Tom K commits the logical fallacy of confusing correlation with causation.
Delta is very badly in need of a union,all they want is part time employees working 4 or 5 hours a day with the “Delta weekend “Tuesday, Wednesday off,it takes almost 10 years to top out,all top loaded of course,that is what help builds there profit,many left after Covid so now many employees have 4 years or less,all at the lowest end of the pay scale,so for a new employee you have to have 2 or 3 jobs to survive,a good career if you can survive working 10 years to top out
“no union has or will come close to matching what DL has paid its union or non-union employees in profit sharing.”
Weird. Because that’s exactly what Delta ALPA did for all non union groups. Ed took their profit sharing away. Delta ALPA gave it back to the employees.
That’s actually the end of the story. So thank your pilots today, Delta friends.
Don’t kid yourself. You’d have to actually be an idiot to not give credit to ALPA on this. Ed and Richard got an absolute lesson in negotiations from ALPA on this. From a management standpoint, probably one of the most expensive missteps by an airline in history. Delta said “f U to their employees” on profit sharing, then gave in to ALPA. Then realized how bad it made them look to non union employees that their pilots got raises and kept the profit sharing.
Delta’s move, pre-alpa, was one of the biggest financial savings in airline history at the expense of their non union employees. Math is not tough, Tim.
Learn your history, Timmy. It’ll help you in your usual ignorant arguments.
to no surprise, you desperately want to push the union cause and think the DL pilot union is the hero.
DL’s pilots get ticked everytime that they are told by mgmt that they can’t have what other airline pilots get because the company won’t give that to non-union employees.
but let’s also be clear that you want to dodge and deflect from the reality that ALL DL employees get the same percentage of profit sharing.
and DL regularly pays out more profit sharing than any other company in the world – and more than all US airlines combined.
There could be no more powerful evidence that unions at other airlines do not and cannot give to their employees what DL employees have.
btw, maxie, how much profit sharing will you get this year?
Could care less about unions. If you’ve ever read a thing I wrote, instead of living in your own head, you’d know that. But give credit where it’s due. ALPA gave Delta employees their current profit sharing formula. Their FAs should look at their work rules and then the profits and realize that.
Ed DESPERATELY tried to take it away. As did Richard. Let’s not confuse facts with Tim’s fantasy. That’s fact. There could be no more powerful impact of unions than Ed being FORCED to reverse course on his own profit sharing financial grab to employees than ALPA taking profit sharing back and forcing Ed to give it to everyone else.
Are you really this big of a corporate shill, Timmy? This is pathetic, even for you. Delta isn’t a charity. ALPA forced DL to go back on their plan to shaft employees on profit sharing. Facts don’t lie. That’s what happened. Go back to your hole.
I Don’t work for AA, DL, UA, WN or any other big boy.
I’ve got a big bonus this year. Certainly not from these guys. How about you, Tim? What’s your fake job paying you these days?
You?
We already know delta fired you. What bonus are you getting? what’s your new fake world where you have a job commenting about nothing 24/7 sounding like an idiot?
“DL’s pilots get ticked everytime that they are told by mgmt that they can’t have what other airline pilots get because the company won’t give that to non-union employees.”
Also, Tim, you’re truly an idiot even typing this. Delta pilots have ruled the industry for a decade because Delta management doesn’t seem to know the first thing about negotiations. What are you even looking at to assume DL pilots are somehow not getting industry standard? Don’t answer this. I already know you don’t know what you’re talking about.
ALPA has dominated DL every time they negotiate. They consistently get everything they want. How you could even type such an idiotic comment only continues to prove how little you know.
And good for ALPA btw.
As usual, you resort to insults because you can’t deal with the basic facts
Delta pays all of its employees, union and non-union, at industry leading rates.
The pilots union has done nothing to help Delta pilots which management wasn’t willing to do
The only idiot is anyone that thinks that Delta management caves to the pilots because they have a union
I am sure you will persist in your stupidity all night long but the pilots had absolutely nothing to saving profit-sharing for non-union employees
And you still have yet to answer the question about how much profit sharing you are getting this year.
It is clear that you are a jilted little child that can’t stand that Delta employees are treated better than you could ever hope to be
“The pilots union has done nothing to help Delta pilots which management wasn’t willing to do
The only idiot is anyone that thinks that Delta management caves to the pilots because they have a union”
Such an idiotic management shill response from a guy fired at cause by Delta management.
Insults? Hardly. know what you’re talking about before you try to engage. You won’t feel stupid if you don’t comment where you have no idea.
Your opinion is honestly idiotic. ALPA was 100% responsible for the current profit sharing formula. Ed tried to take it away. and did for nearly a year before ALPA didn’t let Ed get away with god-awful and embarrassing math trying to make to make management math look like it was good for employees. Pretty sure your average delta employee knows that now. 😉 They just forgot who to thank. Hint hint. Again. It’s your pilot. Not your corporate management. They did everything to take it away.
Know who pays your bills. (this comment doesn’t apply to Tim. Delta fired him. and thank god. God knows where they’d be with his nonsense).
Like most people. I could care less if DL, AA, UA, or WN is unionized, but profit sharing at delta is 100% an ALPA gift to employees. Ed has only tried to take it away.
“And you still have yet to answer the question about how much profit sharing you are getting this year.
It is clear that you are a jilted little child that can’t stand that Delta employees are treated better than you could ever hope to be”
How anyone can be this much of a loser is beyond me. A jilted child because I tell you I don’t work for your beloved industry? lol. This is beyond sad.
You’re the one not getting profit sharing since DL fired you. I don’t work for these guys. but your lame retorts only get more and more ridiculous. lol
Is your day actually this bad? The only amusing part about all this is how excited you get to see my name to immediately go full weird insult vs reply with intelligence.
As a rule of thumb, always a good idea to go with the opposite of Mike P’s position—and here is no different.
Union built the middle class in the US, and continue to fight for working people, leading to higher wages, greater benefits and protections.
@Tim Dunn — I respect your expertise. Delta remains the only major US airline without a flight attendants union. There have only been three failed attempts to unionize, and much of that was stifled by the pandemic and union busting efforts (like those silly ads promoting video games over paying dues). I think it’s only a matter of time before they take up efforts again and succeed. These FAs deserve the support.
I am truly happy that the hard working people at Delta are getting deserved bonuses. And I won’t get into all this union talk. While there are always a few bad FA, most are solid. HOWEVER, as new Diamond, and it’s hard to reach, I am extremely disappointed to see planes depart with empty first class seats. Delta is not rewarding its top customers. Plus their equipment is in literally desperate need of total rehab. As I’ve posted, been on ten 757 and tray tables are galling off , last flight man next to me drink fell all over is. Sat in wet clothes for 3 hours and the FA never apologized or even offered new drinks. Their IFE on these 757 don’t work and they use them on so many routes from ATL. I hope Ed one day learns to appreciate his top elites and sinks money into the interior of these 40 year old workhouse jets. No premium just broken seats and equipment. But congrats to the staff at delta.
They’re not just the number 1 airline company in the US, but they always value and give importance to their employees. Bravo delta!
anyone that seriously thinks that DL pilots got everything they wanted in negotiations is so delusional that they can’t possibly speak about anyone’s employment status.
No, Max, you don’t get profit sharing. We ALL knew that.
You want to attribute to unions what you could never obtain in real life.
1990,
DL FAs rejected unions long before covid. Covid only proved how worthless unions are and set back any chance of any union succeeding at DL by at least a generation.
Gary got it right. No union has succeeded at coming close to matching DL profit sharing. Not even UA pilots -which have the same formula – can get the same profit sharing as DL pilots get – even though DL pays its non-union employees MORE than UA employees.
Jeff,
DL is retiring 757s and doing interior mods on others.
In case you missed it, spare parts are even hard to come by without planning years in advance. DL placed orders for replacement cabins years ago.
“Union built the middle class in the US, and continue to fight for working people, leading to higher wages, greater benefits and protections.”
No, they didn’t and no, they don’t. But, since we’ve already proven you don’t understand economics, it’s unlikely that you can figure out why you’re wrong. Ironically, you committed the same error as Tom K.
Not wanting to get involved in the post by post back and forth here…..
BUT, it was and continues to be the the Pilot’s union that drives such a lucrative profit sharing formula. That assumes there is Profit in the first place of course. We received a “pie in the sky” metric during bankruptcy contract talks. This was pre-merger, pre-rebranding and honestly pre-Richard Anderson. Mr. Anderson did a fantastic job at making DAL what it is today.
Back to profit sharing, I believe at the time of the Bankruptcy, DAL never thought we would be this successful, so the 10% of X and 20% of Y was irrelevant because it would all be multiplied by 0 at the end.
Come the 2015 Contact cycle, DAL saw the liability of the PS, and wanted it changed. Pilots voted no on that, got a second proposal keeping it in place that was approved. They then gave all other employees a nice raise with a new lower PS formula. Pilots kept the old, that lasted two years and DAL had to up the other employee groups to keep the unions away.
I lived it. It truly works. It is enough money for people to pay off debt, make a down payment on a car, take a nice vacation etc.
It does influence decision making, not compromising safety or customer service, but just little smart decisions to be efficient. “It’ll help with profit sharing” is a recurring theme.
Congrats to DAL and its Employees-
@MaxPower “Delta’s decision to remove profit sharing was one of the worst personal choices their employees could’ve made.
Delta removed the rich profit sharing from everyone except their two union groups. They ONLY reinstated it to prevent unionization after the pilots kept the rich pay increases and profit sharing.”
Facts are definitely facts, and I am here to tell you the fact is that Delta removed nothing. You said “the decision to remove profit sharing was one of the worst personal choices their employees could’ve made.” That is exactly what happened. As a non-pilot Delta employee, we were given surveys at the time, and the majority of the people that took the survey said they would rather see the money in their regular check than to have profit sharing. The profit sharing was not just snatched away, as some people make it seem. Then as people’s memories are always short, people complained about not getting the profit sharing that they opted to forego with the survey.
@Tim Dunn — If that is the case, then Delta is truly unique among the airlines, and I wish the very best for these flight attendants and crews. They deserve even better compensation, benefits, and protections, as do many groups of similarly situated employees at other companies and industries, which in many cases have been hard fought and hard won by unions, collective bargaining, and other support networks that individuals cannot match on their own. You can defend Delta without bashing unions generally.
@Mike P — Then there’s you, who take every opportunity to attack your perceived enemies on ‘the left.’ Once again, at least we’re consistent: I reject and oppose nearly every incorrect and misguided ‘opinion’ you have shared on this site. Unions are indeed good for workers and the society at large, yes, economically. Thank you for at least not sharing any more spam links on this site. People don’t need viruses on their devices (or in their heads).
ATL,
don’t you want to address the statement that MAX made that DALPA gets everything it wants when it deals w/ DL management?
tell us the things that DL pilots don’t have because management isn’t willing to share them with the non-cons.
1990s,
we all can say that people are worth more but there is a market and the market for labor service is based on comparing what the same groups of employees get at different employers.
DL has long delivered equal or higher wages than its peers and for a decade plus has added to that with industry – and global – leading profit sharing.
DL employees ARE well-compensated and they are because DL, under Bastian who has led DL for most of the past 2 decades, is running a company that is at the top of customer and financial metrics compared to its peers.
Yes, they have run to improve and DL employees will be given new tools and resources to deliver even more but DL’s formula of profit sharing is delivering top tier results.
and as much as pilots want to think they are the root of profit sharing for the company, DL not only doesn’t give pilots everything they want but DL also ensures that non-union employees are not disadvantaged in what they get.
and the whole source of where PS comes from argument is a noisy distraction from those that want to argue that DL employees – union and non-union – get the same percentage of PS, an unheard of concept elsewhere in global business.