More bad news for Delta as pilots picket

Can Delta Airlines catch a break? Apparently not. It’s been a pretty rough summer for the world’s number 2 airline. Just a few weeks after a computer program glitch left thousands of passengers stranded across the country, now Delta pilots are picketing company headquarters, making a very public demand for more cash for their services.



This is not the first time this summer there have been picket lines outside Delta offices. Back in June, pilots picketed at eight major airports as part of a coordinated demand for more pay and better contracts.

Now the protests are being held at the airline’s headquarters in Atlanta, home of one of the biggest hub airports in the country. While it’s not yet being called a strike, the pilots are holding their ground, demanding the company pay better attention to their requests. The pilot’s union repping 13,000 pilots is currently in talks with Delta senior management, but at this point, no news is bad news, and the pilots are getting to be about as patient as those unhappy passengers a few weeks back.

The dispute goes back to events more than a decade ago when a perfect storm of an economic downturn, inflation, and terrible profit results forced the company to negotiate a major pay cut with their pilots. At the time, the pilots accepted 50% cuts in pay just to keep working. That was ten years ago, and the union claims pilot pay still hasn’t acceptably recovered.

While first officers start out at just under 70K per year on salary, and captains can make about $261,000, most still make less than they do at competitive airlines United and American. Worse, Delta pilots are even outpaced by cargo carriers like UPS and FedEx. Still, it’s a respectable income, and it might not be so bad, except that Delta banked record profits last year, thanks to low fuel costs and increased consumer travel.

Delta says, as part of those record profits, pilots got a big chunk of a bonus, roughly 40K according to Delta. The pilots aren’t buying what the company is selling, and it may be the perfect time to hold the line. After all, Delta’s already fighting one PR battle, they may not want to try a two-front war.

Phil Shawe is an entrepreneur based in New York.