Approval Saves $1 Billion A Year

After months of hard-nose, on-again off-again negotiations, Delta pilots Thursday approved a new contract, cutting 32.5 percent of their wages and benefits and hopefully avoiding the airline's threatened bankruptcy.

Delta pilots, who've been the highest-paid in the business, will lose $90,000 a year at the top end. The highest-paid pilots will now only make $185,000 a year.

While the ALPA pilots' acceptance of the Delta deal will save the airline $1 billion a year, CEO Gerald Grinstein said it may not be enough.

"There are no winners at this point," he said in a letter to pilots, quoted by the New York Times. "We unfortunately remain in turbulent times."

Of the ALPA pilots voting on the concession deal, 79 percent approved it. Turnout was very high -- 91 percent of pilots voted on the pact.

But they weren't very happy about it. "Our airline has been managed to the brink of bankruptcy and the Delta pilots had to decide between two bad choices," said master executive council chairman John Malone. "They chose the lesser of two evils."

FMI: www.delta.com