When the world changed in March 2020, Delta Air Lines pilot contract talks were underway and moving towards key issues led by salary and scope protection. Now the talks are resuming, with the same two issues underscored by pandemic changes.
“Delta pilots really stepped up in this recovery,” said Jason Ambrosi, chairman of the Delta chapter of the Air Line Pilots Association. “They have put their backpacks on and flown record amounts of overtime, and now they expect to be rewarded for it. Obviously, inflation is nipping away at our earnings”
Scope, which refers to the number of size of aircraft that can be flown by international and regional partners, is a particular concern for Delta pilots because the carrier is so heavily engaged with partners, led by Air France/KLM and Virgin Atlantic in the Atlantic and by Korean Air in the Pacific.
“Delta is the number one JV airline out there, a partner with almost everybody,” Ambrosi said. “Our footprint is all over the globe. Delta says Air France brings people into our hubs and they go to domestic destinations and we understand that. But we want to get an equitable share.”
Ambrosi would prefer an agreement that covers scope on every partnership, rather than the current piecemeal series of scope agreements currently in place. “Previous groups would negotiate each joint venture, with separate contractual language for each,” he said. “My goal is to be forward looking, so that if Delta adds two years from now, there is already language in place, rather than having to renegotiate. If that goes through, it will set a pattern the industry can follow.”
Besides salary and scope, Delta pilots are focused on two additional issues – a retirement savings plan in addition to the typical 401K plan, particularly important because Delta pilots lost retirement savings in the carrier’s 2005 bankruptcy, and scheduling, which has taken on added importance due to the ongoing pilot shortage and Covid uncertainty. Ambrosi said Delta pilots need “greater protection on schedules, (because) what they think they will fly on a trip and what they actually fly are quite different. They need some control over their lives.”
Delta’s ALPA chapter is the second largest with 13,310 pilots, just behind United ALPA’s 13,700 members. The Delta contract became amendable Dec, 31, 2019. Contract talks began in April 2019. Ambrosi, a 22-year Delta pilot, was elected chairman of the master executive council in November 2020 and took office on Jan. 1, 2021.
The first meeting on contract talks in two years talks occurred last week. “We revisited open sections in hopes for more progress,” Ambrosi said. In a memo to pilots last week, John Laughter, Delta executive vice president and chief of operations, wrote, “We are proud of having an industry-leading contract for pilots, with the best compensation based on pay, retirement and profit sharing, and we’re committed to maintaining that position.”
Laughter said the two sides reached a tentative agreement on retirement savings, but so far the Internal Revenue Service has declined to rule on its legality. He also said Delta and its pilots have made progress on “Global Scope,” noting that “Delta's proposal includes by far the best JV partner flying protection in the industry for our pilots, including guaranteed equal growth vs. partners.”
As for pay, Laughter said Delta employees have earned more than $6.5 billion in profit sharing in five years, “a level unmatched by any other company.” Even though it did not have a full-year profit in 2021, Delta will make a profit-sharing payment next month based on its second half profitability.
Currently, on the Boeing 737, the most common Delta aircraft, average salary for a 12-year captain is $265,800 annually and for a five-year first officer, $161,475.
Ambrosi, 49 years old and a 22-year Delta pilot, says he wants to continue flying as much as possible while serving as chairman. He has trained as a Boeing 757/767 captain, but with the backup in pilot training, has not yet been checked out on the aircraft. His last flight was on a now-retired McDonnell Douglas MD-90 in February 2020.
He remembers the flight, from Houston to Atlanta, so rerouted due to winter weather that he flew near Chicago. “It was the longest flight I’ve ever done in an MD-90,” he said. Within weeks, the pandemic began. Subsequently, Delta retired its McDonnell Douglas aircraft and Ambrosi was elected to be Delta ALPA chairman.
Early in the pandemic, he recalled, “You could look out the window (of the ALPA office in Atlanta) and see runways closed with airplanes parked everywhere. It was stark. Then pilots banded together to help the airline through the pandemic: Everyone worked tirelessly to bridge the gap. Now, it looks like we are emerging on the other side.”
