General Lee
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Associated Press
Delta, Pilots to Meet on Early Retirement
Thursday September 16, 5:43 pm ET Delta Airlines Managers Plan to Meet With Pilots Friday on Early Retirement Issue
NEW YORK (AP) -- Delta Air Lines Inc. managers and pilots will meet again Friday, and likely negotiate through the weekend, to find a way to keep the airline staffed with pilots, as many opt for early retirement.
Since the Atlanta airline warned a few months ago it may face bankruptcy, pilots have been taking early retirement at higher rates than usual. That's because retired pilots may take half of their pensions in a lump-sum payment right away, thus ensuring they don't lose their entire pensions if the airline enters Chapter 11.
The next round of early retirements hits on Oct. 1, and, if too many senior pilots leave, the airline may face a shortage. That could force Delta to ground its largest airplanes, which serve the most lucrative international routes, because those planes are flown by the most experienced pilots.
"They're trying to work out arrangements where they wouldn't face an operational nightmare, where they would have to put widebody planes on the ground," said Standard & Poor's credit analyst Philip Baggaley. "It seems to me in the interest of both sides to work out an arrangement quickly."
Pilots aged 50 or older, with a certain number of years with the airline, may take early retirement. So far this year, 434 have done so, and Delta took a $117 million charge in the second quarter on the early retirements.
About 2,000 current Delta pilots are eligible for early retirement, and roughly 600 have enough years of service to make the pension payout worthwhile, said Air Line Pilots Association spokeswoman Karen Miller. That's 8 percent of the airline's 7,500 pilots who may find it advantageous to retire right away.
Many of those pilots are the most senior at the airline, flying the large, wide-body 777 and 767 airplanes on the lucrative international routes. It takes between three weeks and two months to train a pilot to fly those planes, and already Delta's training pipeline is operating at full capacity, Delta spokesman Anthony Black said.
The airline doesn't have much time to hammer out an arrangement with pilots, because any agreement negotiators reach must be put to a vote among union members. Such a vote would take about four or five days, union spokeswoman Miller said. She said that means negotiators must have a tentative agreement by early next week in order to have something in place by Oct. 1.
Delta Chief Executive Gerald Grinstein had aimed to get an agreement by the end of this week, but the logistics of gathering pilot negotiators so quickly prompted him to back off that deadline.
Bye Bye--General Lee
Delta, Pilots to Meet on Early Retirement
Thursday September 16, 5:43 pm ET Delta Airlines Managers Plan to Meet With Pilots Friday on Early Retirement Issue
NEW YORK (AP) -- Delta Air Lines Inc. managers and pilots will meet again Friday, and likely negotiate through the weekend, to find a way to keep the airline staffed with pilots, as many opt for early retirement.
Since the Atlanta airline warned a few months ago it may face bankruptcy, pilots have been taking early retirement at higher rates than usual. That's because retired pilots may take half of their pensions in a lump-sum payment right away, thus ensuring they don't lose their entire pensions if the airline enters Chapter 11.
The next round of early retirements hits on Oct. 1, and, if too many senior pilots leave, the airline may face a shortage. That could force Delta to ground its largest airplanes, which serve the most lucrative international routes, because those planes are flown by the most experienced pilots.
"They're trying to work out arrangements where they wouldn't face an operational nightmare, where they would have to put widebody planes on the ground," said Standard & Poor's credit analyst Philip Baggaley. "It seems to me in the interest of both sides to work out an arrangement quickly."
Pilots aged 50 or older, with a certain number of years with the airline, may take early retirement. So far this year, 434 have done so, and Delta took a $117 million charge in the second quarter on the early retirements.
About 2,000 current Delta pilots are eligible for early retirement, and roughly 600 have enough years of service to make the pension payout worthwhile, said Air Line Pilots Association spokeswoman Karen Miller. That's 8 percent of the airline's 7,500 pilots who may find it advantageous to retire right away.
Many of those pilots are the most senior at the airline, flying the large, wide-body 777 and 767 airplanes on the lucrative international routes. It takes between three weeks and two months to train a pilot to fly those planes, and already Delta's training pipeline is operating at full capacity, Delta spokesman Anthony Black said.
The airline doesn't have much time to hammer out an arrangement with pilots, because any agreement negotiators reach must be put to a vote among union members. Such a vote would take about four or five days, union spokeswoman Miller said. She said that means negotiators must have a tentative agreement by early next week in order to have something in place by Oct. 1.
Delta Chief Executive Gerald Grinstein had aimed to get an agreement by the end of this week, but the logistics of gathering pilot negotiators so quickly prompted him to back off that deadline.
Bye Bye--General Lee
