Delta posts strong 4Q profit, will pay $372 million in Profit Sharing

January 22, 2013

Delta today posted a profit of $238 million for the fourth quarter 2012, excluding special items, as it extended its streak of producing a revenue premium to the industry for 21 consecutive months.

The airline also reported an annual profit of $1.6 billion for 2012, excluding special items, a $362 million increase over its 2011 profit. The airline said it recognize employees for their hard work with $372 million in profit sharing. That will translate into a payment on Feb. 14 of 6.67% of earnings for eligible employees.

“We enter 2013 as a stronger airline, ready to build on our success of 2012 and benefitting from the backdrop of an improving airline industry,” Delta CEO Richard Anderson said in a press release. “We see this as the year Delta can advance our position around the world and move forward toward our goal of consistent, sustainable profitability.”

In addition to profit sharing, Delta people earned $91 million in Shared Rewards in 2012, reflecting the airline’s outstanding operational performance for the year, with an on-time arrival rate of 86.5%, a 25% reduction in lost bags and nearly 40% fewer customer complaints compared with 2011.

Including special items, the profit for the quarter was $7 million, and the annual 2012 profit totaled $1 billion.

Delta’s unit passenger revenues increased by 4.3%.

“Our investments in Delta’s network, products and operations, combined with our capacity disciple, have produced unit revenue growth that has outpaced the industry for 21 consecutive months,” said Ed Bastian, Delta’s president, in the press release.

The results came despite the effects of Superstorm Sandy, which affected operations in the Northeast as well as the Trainer refinery, and resulted in a $100 million negative impact.

Unit costs excluding fuel, profit sharing and special items were 5.7% higher during the fourth quarter compared with the same period in 2011, driven by the impact of reduced capacity, higher maintenance expenses, wage increases and operational and service investments.

Delta ended the quarter with an adjusted net debt of $11.7 billion, a $5.3 billion reduction since 2009.*

Embrace the SUCK!
 

That is about all I was able to discern from Anderson's remarks on earnings. West Coast at DAL is not the place to be nor will it change in any time frame that suits anyone hired after 1999. The Eskimos are on the move to SLC soon so that domicile is no longer safe as well.

Hope those boys at AK get busy and get some scope and code share protections in this contract, I dont wish what we are going through on anyone! Time to go beg for a ride to work just so I can enjoy short call!:mad:

Here is webcast link for the investor's call at 10 AM Eastern.

Didn't one of SD's letters say debt was 10.7B about 6-8 months ago? The letters aren't kept in archive on deltanet.

I have them in my e-mail. This is what SD said on Oct 26th:

Not to mention Fred. He was canned at DAL, virgin america, and just recently Flexjet. Not bad being able to pick up 3 more pensions in 10 years. Yeah, a pilot could never run an airline. ;)

Please post the mainline fleet plan for the next 3 years. Again note the word mainline.

What's the bet on capacity guidance for the year (not Q1)?

0 to -2% seems quite popular with analysts, year after year. I'm guessing they'll play that tune again.

There could very likely be hiring in 2012.

Thanks Elvis, I just thought we were closer to the magic 10B.