In a return to a pre-pandemic tradition, Delta Air Lines made a Valentine's Day gift of $563 million in profit sharing, including $48 million to Minnesota employees.
Delta announced last month that its 90,000 employees would again be rewarded with meaningful profit sharing for the first time since 2019. Those payments hit employees' bank accounts Tuesday, also known as Employee Appreciation Day.
The Atlanta-based carrier is the dominant airline at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport and the profit sharing will go to more than 8,000 employees in the state. After being crippled in the pandemic's early days, Delta and other airlines have been ramping up hiring and training of new employees and increasing pay and other incentives.
In a memo to employees, Delta chief executive Ed Bastian said this amount, "about 5.57% per eligible employee, is more than the profit sharing pool of all our competitors combined."
"Considering the depths of losses we suffered during the pandemic, including a $1 billion first-quarter loss just last year, this is truly a remarkable achievement," Bastian wrote. "I'm confident that in the months and years ahead, our high-performance culture will take us to new heights, and that payout pool will continue to grow."
The companywide profit sharing is more than 20% of Delta's total profits. Since 2010, Delta reports that it has shared nearly $10 billion in profits with employees.
Delta also announced earlier this week that employees will receive a 5% pay increase, effective April 1. This is the second base pay increase within a 12-month period for its ground and flight attendant employees worldwide after a 4% raise last May. There is also a 5% pool for eligible merit employees worldwide.
