Thursday, September 27, 2001

Delta Air Lines to cut jobs, flight schedules over next few months
Associated Press

ATLANTA — Becoming the last major airline to slash jobs in the economic aftermath of the terrorist attacks, Delta Air Lines said Wednesday that it will eliminate up to 13,000 jobs over the next few months and cut its schedule by 15 percent.

The job cuts represent nearly 16 percent of Delta’s 82,000 employees. Chairman Leo Mullin said the steep decline in travel after the Sept. 11 attacks threaten the very survival of the nation’s third-largest airline.

“War was declared on the United States of America, using aviation as the instrument of destruction,” he said. “As a result, the operational and financial outlook for airlines has changed precipitously, and drastic measures are required if we are to avoid being among the first economic casualties of the war.”

Overall, U.S. airlines plan to shed nearly 93,000 jobs and Boeing Co. up to 30,000 more by the end of next year because Americans largely have abandoned air travel. Only one major airline, Southwest, has announced no job reductions or schedule cuts since the attacks.

Mullin said Delta planes have been only 33 percent to 35 percent full on most flights since the attacks far below the 65 percent load factor the airline needs to break even. The company is averaging about 140,000 daily passengers, compared with 300,000 before the attacks.

Delta has lost about $1 billion since the disasters and expects to receive about $600 million from the $5 billion aid package Congress approved for airlines last week. The cuts, which will include about 1,700 pilots, will be completed by the end of the year.

The Atlanta-based airline has hubs in Cincinnati, Dallas-Fort Worth, Salt Lake City, Orlando, Fla., New York and Los Angeles.

Among the cutbacks will be operations at subsidiary Delta Express, meals on many flights and 40 percent of its international flights from New York’s Kennedy airport.

Delta was not forced to cut as deeply as some airlines because of its strong balance sheet it had $2.5 billion in cash before the government relief and because it will need to rehire some people as passengers return, said Raymond Neidl, an analyst with ABN Amro Inc.

“They’re probably situated better than some of the others,” Neidl said.

Mullin told reporters he will take no salary the rest of the year. Mullin has a base salary of $745,833 and received a $1.4 million bonus last year. He said the airline is developing promotions designed to lure people back onto planes, including one involving discounted tickets from New York.