Delta Air Lines Reports Most Profitable First Quarter in Their History
Published Apr 20, 2015 on Pilot Jobs
FREE Airline Pilot Career Guide. — Requirements, Pay, Steps and More. Download Now »
Delta Air Lines has reported a net profit of $746 million in the first quarter of 2015, more than tripling the $213 million net profit the company recorded in the same period a year ago.
“[It was] the best March quarter, both operationally and financially, in Delta’s history,” Delta CEO Richard Anderson said. “The airline’s “strong cash generation” enabled management to return $500 million to shareholders via dividends and share repurchases. The company additionally made $904 million in pension contributions and doled out $136 million in profit sharing during the quarter.”
Delta’s continued profitability has fueled their steady growth in response to steady demand by airline passengers. Their growth plan, much like the other airlines, includes expanding their fleet of airliners to accommodate their passengers. The fleet expansion increases the need for Delta to continually hire more pilots to fly the increased number of aircraft.
Delta has hired over a thousand pilots since the airline industry recovered from the global economic recession, and like other legacy airlines, they have hired those pilots from the regional airlines in this country. This has added to the shortage of pilots at the regional level, and created the opportunity for thousands of new pilots to enter the airline industry.
The shortage of pilots has created competition between airlines for new pilots entering the industry, and they have begun offering large signing and retention bonuses to pilots willing to come fly for them.
These signing bonus and retention programs are a boon for pilots just becoming qualified to start flying in the industry. One thing is for certain. Once the decision is made to pursue a career flying for the airlines, the quickest, most cost-efficient and most proven path to flying for the airline industry begins with calling ATP for details on how you can begin a lucrative career flying for the airlines.