Delta to present at Cowen
 

Delta Air Lines will present at Cowen and Company 11th Annual Global Transportation Conference at 8 a.m. EST on Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018.

http://ir.delta.com/news-and-events/...e/default.aspx

Tomorrow morning. ATL time early.

Full transcript:

https://seekingalpha.com/article/420...pt?part=single

Not a ton of info in this one:

1) This year was tougher than they thought. Will still make >5 Billion profit for the 5th year in a row.

2) They think next year will be better

3) Cap Ex was focused on infrastructure this year. 2019 Cap Ex will be focused on technology. (For the pax)

4) Still breaking records for performance and record pax carried.

5) Still espousing the virtues of stock buybacks and returns to shareholders. Plenty of talk about getting the stock price higher.

6) They accomplished a flat cost increase for second half of year, which was their goal. (Most divisions have felt these cost pressures in the face of billion dollar profits) Leadership is determined to cut and “drive efficiency” until margins expand.

I'm curious as to what you think about profit sharing percentage for this year. I realize there is still another quarter to go but......all things being equal and the company profit does exceed $5 Billion......what is the likelihood we see 15% in profit sharing?

Denny

I think the profit last years for purposes of PS was 6.1 billion. The amount we got was 15.1%. With the decrease of profits in the 20% bucket and the increase in pilot wages I am going to guess 12.3%

Edit: Here is the 2017 data. You can draw some conclusions for 2018. I think however there were a bunch of special items including retro that drove the difference in announced profit of 5.5 billion to the 6.8 billion amount used for the actual calculation. I don’t think we will see that difference this year.

Delta Air Lines announced a pre-tax income of $5.5 billion for 2017, excluding special items, which equates to a total profit sharing income (the PWA-defined PTIX) of $6.8 billion and nearly $1.1 billion dollars in employee profit sharing expenses.

Looking at last years data 12.3 might be on the high side. One can hope!

Returning 70% to shareholders up from 50%.

It’s raining money.

Offloading part of the refinery.

They want to get rid of all of the refinery.

Well... Tell your boys to go get some if it.

We have 3 negotiations going on right now including 2 JVs and reroute.

What are we waiting on? The NMB?

Any idea why?

The "Stick with what you know" theory comes to mind.

It seemed to be fine for the last few years, now why do they want to get rid of it? Oh, and the story I read said we were looking for a 'partner.'

That's how Bombardier sold the "send the C Series to airbus" idea at first also.

Do you think “his boys” aren’t trying to do exactly that? IMO it takes two to tango. When one party doesn’t want to come out on the dance floor there is no way to force them..................until there is (NMB Mar/Apr 2020).

Denny

After a little more thought on this: As I understand it, we originally had a contract with Philipps 66 for the non-Jet fuel portion of the refinery's production. We traded the gasoline/diesel/asphalt to them for jet fuel at other locations. So in essence, we were getting 100% jet A out of the crude that was refined there. Since contracts have ends (with the exception of RLA contracts) perhaps this is what they mean by 'partner'.

just a thought.

Absolutely it takes two and you are right, there is no way to force them and the NMB really can’t force them either, but can provide some pressure.

Interestingly, some on the MEC and at least one candidate in 44 has questioned whether we even should go to mediation. I would expect that to be a discussion going forward.

I only speak of “his boys” because of how critical “his boys” were of all things ALPA in the past. Now they are the dance partner and their partner doesn’t want to dance, so now it isn’t the MEC’s fault although they were the first to blame the MEC in the past.

It seems like the new mantra is “at least they haven’t caved” but if you go back and look at the LOAs as someone posted on FB, they weren’t concessionary or selling anything as they are portrayed. So there was progress for the Delta pilots by having a business like approach instead of a reactionary one. (At least to this point)

I know some are willing to wait “as long as it takes” for the perfect contract, but there is no retro when it comes to work rules and scope. That does not mean moving to the company table position or even close on the JVs, but sitting back doing nothing while AM grows within the confines of 1E2 (or whatever the section is) doesn’t seem to be working.

And Denny,

I am not trying to be argumentative with you, I just feel like there is a balance between PE and where we are now that would yield better (any) results.

There is a segment of this MEC who gains a greater thrill out of fighting, I believe than they do winning. I am confident for example, that if the MC and the CEO had an open line of communication (trust) some of our outstanding issues would be resolved by now.

Look at the DH issue. The C81 Captain Rep goes on FB pandering to his audience about how the CEO had told the MEC he would resolve it. Someone asked the question if the MC had called Ed to remind him of that statement. He dodged the question with a non answer and then when asked again, he disappeared as he normally does....

Why?

He either wants to keep the narrative going that the company won’t work with us, or he doesn’t want to admit that the MC (at least up until recently) had not been speaking to the CEO.

The rhetoric, Executive Inactive, and all the other things are fine if they actually produce something. To date I haven’t seen a whole lot that is encouraging.

Executive inactive gives a pay raise to management pilots and a pay cut to ALPA. Brilliant!

If you mean they pay less dues because they are not active members, then no. If you mean that they got a reward and pay increase from Delta, then yes. Name any other union that has a senior level vice-president and division directors as members.

Dues rate for executive inactive members is 1.45%.

And the answer to his last sentence is?????

No idea, I know at many airlines the VP of flight ops resign from the union and pay no dues. At Delta it’s long been a tradition for the VP of ops to pay full dues.

APA? Can't remember if they make them resign from APA.

Again this is not a raise. It's our requirement for inactivity. My opinion is it should be 0 with their immediate removal from the union, but obviously I'm outnumbered here. Tradition at trade unions is to remove members who no longer practice the trade and actively seek and hold management positions. Explain to me why our senior managers should be allowed to be union members.

https://aflcio.org/about/our-unions-...iliated-unions

Here's a list of unions when you find one that has a company VP as a member, please let me know.

What you would probably end up with if you want to go that route is management hiring management pilots off the street. I prefer that they come from our seniority list.

I don't care where they come from as long as they aren't part of our union. We have to assume they are hired for their ability to do their (management) job. Cost control, efficiency, productivity are their job not making pilots QOL better or paying them more. IN FACT THEY SIT ACROSS THE TABLE DOING ALL THEY CAN TO KEEP THIS TO A MINIMUM. But yea, they should be honorary union members. :rolleyes:

How far down do you feel this should go? Do you want your next checkride to be from a guy hired off the street 3 months prior as a checkairman? Ask the UPS guys how they like that!

The disciplinary measuring stick has been used before. Are LCAs managers? I would make it Chief pilots and above but our union has it as close to right as it will get for here, I think.

That’s how most of us felt. Having the option of returning to the line allowed them to say No to upper management and back a pilot. A few did just that.