Delta Air Lines announced its annual profit-sharing scheme on Friday, with workers set to receive an estimated 10% bonus on their eligible annual pay – slightly down on the 10.40% bonus workers at the Atlanta-based carrier received last year.
Despite the slight drop in this year’s profit sharing payout, however, according to Delta, in the last few years, the airline’s profit-sharing expenses have far exceeded those of both American and United Airlines combined.
Over the last 10 years, Delta has reportedly paid more than $10 billion in profit sharing, although the bonus for 2024 is way down on the heady days of 2015 when Delta employees were rewarded with a bonus of 21% of their annual salary, or even 2019 when the bonus nearly hit 17%.
“Every day, Delta people prove themselves to be difference makers in this industry,” commented chief executive CEO Ed Bastian on Friday. “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.”
Delta rewards profit sharing equally across workgroups, although its rivals usually have different ways to work out profit sharing for other employee groups.
For 2023, United paid flight attendants nearly 9.20% in profit sharing, whereas flight attendants at American Airlines were rewarded with an annual bonus of just 1.10% of their yearly salary.
Ramp and cargo workers at United received around 3.50% of their annual salary in profit-sharing last year, whereas American Airlines rewarded these workers with a bonus of 3.60%.
Delta profit sharing scheme was announced on the same day that the carrier revealed its full-year financial results, with the airline reporting an operating revenue of $57 billion and an income of $6 billion.
Delta’s operating margin for 2024 was an impressive 10.6%.
The last month of 2024 proved to be particularly robust for the airline after Delta delivered its most profitable December in its history – raking in a pre-tax income of $1.6 billion, up $500 million on 2023.
