Delta will avoid pilot furloughs if they agree to reduced minimum pay: memo

[July 18, 2020]  By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Delta Air Lines told pilots on Friday it would avoid furloughs if they agreed to reduced guaranteed minimum pay, according to a memo seen by Reuters.

Delta is still struggling due to a dramatic decline in travel demand caused by the coronavirus pandemic. This week it reported second quarter revenue fell 91% and a $3.9 billion adjusted pre-tax loss.

The airline is working to further cut costs and more than 17,000 employees are taking voluntary departure packages, including more than 1,700 of 7,900 pilot ahead of a Sunday deadline for pilots to accept voluntary packages.

Delta flight operations senior vice president John Laughter

said in a memo the company is "committed to preventing involuntary furloughs for as many, if not all, Delta people."
 

Laughter said the company proposed reducing guaranteed minimum pilot pay by 15% for 12 months in exchange for a guarantee of no furloughs for one year.

"Our approach is to spread the work of a smaller airline among all our pilots to preserve all jobs – that would be unheard of in our history," Laughter wrote.

Delta Air Lines passenger planes are seen parked due to flight reductions made to slow the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), at Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport in Birmingham, Alabama, U.S. March 25, 2020. REUTERS/Elijah Nouvelage

Laughter said Delta pilots are currently being paid for more hours than they are actually flying. In June pilots flew about 10 actual hours and it will be 15.5 in July.

A spokesman for the Air Line Pilots Association said the union met with Delta on Thursday and suggested the airline was choosing "to negotiate in public directly with our pilots," which it said that could impede the process.

Laughter noted "forward bookings have stalled as infection rates in parts of the U.S. spike and anxiety over the virus rises. Demand is still down about 80%, and we don’t expect to see measurable improvement until the U.S. infection rates fall again."

The memo was reported earlier by CNBC.

(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)

[© 2020 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved.]

Copyright 2020 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.  Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.