DELTA PILOTS APPROVE CONTRACT
Raises pay 34 percent by 2026 and makes other improvements
Pilots at Delta Air Lines approved a new contract that would increase wages 34 percent by 2026 and make quality-of-life improvements, raising the standard for contract negotiations underway at other large U.S. airlines.
Voting was conducted in February and the results were announced Wednesday, with 78 percent of pilots approving the new contract, according to the union that represents them, the Delta Master Executive Council. The raises are valued at more than $7 billion over four years, the union said.
The agreement’s substantial raises are a reflection of a shortage of pilots in the United States and the strong recovery in demand for air travel.
Airlines have been hiring thousands of pilots since bookings began picking up in 2021 after the pandemic gutted travel in early 2020. Many airlines offered early retirements and buyout packages to pilots and other employees during the height of the panthat demic and before any vaccines became publicly available, thinking that demand would recover slowly. They were left short staffed when business picked up much more quickly.
“This industry-leading contract is the direct result of the Delta pilots’ unity and resolve,” said Capt. Darren Hartmann, the chair of the union. “Despite a twoyear delay in negotiations due to COVID, we never lost sight of our goal to obtain significant acrossthe-board enhancements to our Pilot Working Agreement.”
The airline’s 15,000 pilots also overwhelmingly approved a separate agreement intended to protect the number of high-paying jobs for pilots who operate international flights. That agreement, approved by 90 percent of those who voted, would require Delta to add new international f lying positions whenever it sells more flights operated by foreign airlines that it has partnerships with.
The new contract is widely expected to influence pilot negotiations at American Airlines, United Airlines and Southwest Airlines. All of those companies are contending with difficult talks and demands for much higher pay and other changes from union leaders and their members.
In the fall, pilots at United voted down a proposed contract. And the leaders of the union at American, the Allied Pilots Association, declined to send a tentative agreement to a membership vote.
American said Wednesday the new Delta contract could put more pressure on other airlines to offer pilots better terms.
“Delta’s pilot agreement profoundly changes the economics for the entire industry,” American said in a statement. “Our commitment to paying our team members well and competitively remains unchanged.”
The union at Southwest plans to ask its members to vote in May to authorize a strike if the group doesn’t reach a contract with the company. Under federal law, pilots can only strike after several conditions are met.
“It is not a decision we have taken lightly, but given the trajectory of our current leadership group, we have little faith in the stability and future of our airline,” Capt. Casey Murray, the president of the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association, said in a statement last month.
Murray and other union leaders sharply criticized Southwest’s management after a meltdown of the company’s operations disrupted the travel plans of about 2 million people at the end of last year.
About 96 percent of Delta’s eligible pilots cast a ballot. The contract will run through 2026.