Timbo, if I may correct you. Delta didn't pay United Health Care 15 million for Anderson. It put 15 million in contract incentives if Delta met certain financial goals. Even with that he left a lot, and I mean a lot, of cash on the table by coming to Delta.

Executive Suite: Delta chief takes unlikely flight path - USATODAY.com

"Anderson decided to return to the airline industry, despite a pay cut to about $1.5 million annually in salary and bonus. Anderson potentially could earn as much as $15 million in three years from Delta if a special incentive package created to partially offset the pay cut he took pays out fully. He could have earned several times that had he stayed at UnitedHealth.

Anderson says the attraction of returning to the industry is the "intellectual challenge of trying to make an important, long-lasting change in how … airlines are managed." Specifically, he says, Delta is positioned to show that airlines need not be vulnerable to the cyclical swings that have marked the industry's history."