With another year of generous profit sharing, Delta Air Lines has once again demonstrated why it is widely regarded as the best major U.S. airline to work for.
Delta Air Lines Employees Will Enjoy $1.3 Billion In Profit Sharing (8.9% Bonus)
The Atlanta-based carrier announced that eligible employees will receive profit-sharing payments equivalent to roughly four weeks of pay, marking yet another substantial payout under Delta’s long-standing profit-sharing program. While many airlines continue to talk about “valuing employees,” Delta continues to put real money behind those words.
Each year on Valentine’s Day, Delta employees receive a profit-sharing bonus commensurate with the carrier’s profits the previous year. Rather than a flat fee to each employee, employees receive a percentage of their annual earnings based on how profitable the carrier was. This year, based on 2025 profits, each employee will receive an approximately 8.9% bonus on their annual earnings. That amounts to about $1.3 billion in total, representing about 30% of Delta’s total $5 billion profit in 2025.
(Delta employees receive 10% of the first $2.5 billion the airline earns and 20% above $2.5 billion)
Unlike many corporate bonus programs that are discretionary or opaque, Delta’s approach is formula-based, predictable, and applied across the workforce. For frontline employees especially, this now routinely translates into the equivalent of an extra month’s pay deposited directly into their accounts each February.
Delta is the most profitable US airline and also the most generous with its bonus program. Since 2007, Delta has paid over $13 billion in employee bonuses. No U.S. carrier comes close in profit sharing (though outside the USA, Emirates and Singapore Airlines were rewarded with even more lucrative salary bonuses last year).
Delta’s Chief People Officer Allison Ausband said:
“The passion and dedication of Delta people carried us through 2025 and will continue to propel us forward. Their unwavering focus on safety and care is what builds trust and a deep loyalty for customers, and continued success for Delta.”
As I say each year, this is unmitigated good news for Delta and for its employees. Kudos to Delta for rewarding its employees…and for flight attendants, it is another reminder that unionizing is probably not in their own self-interest. Delta may be partially generous because it fears unionization, but its workers are the beneficiaries and it is more lucrative to work for Delta, all things considered, than for any US airline peer.
CONCLUSION
I’m struck by the durability of this ongoing profit share. Delta has managed to sustain strong profitability while simultaneously raising wages, improving benefits, and investing heavily in both fleet and product. That combination remains rare in U.S. aviation and is to be celebrated. Congrats to Delta employees!
So are the employees going to reproduce the stunt with the 767? Give back some money so that there will be an employee paid Boeing 787-10?
Hardly a stunt. Quite a real gesture. I was there.
OK, is the gesture going to be repeated again?
The DELTA difference…
Numbers do not calculate correctly: $1.3 billion bonuses, ~30% of total $5 billion profit (actually 26% but close enough for …)
If it was $5 billion profit and bonuses of 10% of first $2.5 billion ($0.25B) and 20% above $2.5 billion ($0.5B), it would be $0.75 billion total bonuses.
Obviously, it can be done a number of ways. Imagine a firm offers a profit share of 10% of profits. Profit before taxes is $1400. After $400 in income taxes, the net profit is $1000. Is the share $140 or $100. But, here’s the sneaky part. If the share is $93.33, then the new, before tax profit is $1306.67. Using the same effective tax rate (400÷1400), taxes are $373.33, leaving $933.33 of net profit. And, 10% of that is the $93.33. So, does the percentage calculation also consider that the share reduces profit?
And, yes, I am aware the share typically takes place in the next year. There are not aligned in that way. But, one can do the “as if” calculation.
“Delta may be partially generous because it fears unionization” … exactly, Matt. And, as soon as there’s a downturn, and no more ‘profits’ to share, watch as Delta’s non-union employees get hacked. For now, it’s great. But, it’s not planning ahead for the rainy days that inevitably always come. At least Delta’s pilots (since 1934!) and dispatchers are unionized; if only the flight attendants, maintenance technicians, and baggage handlers would join them, they could still enjoy profit sharing as pilots and dispatchers do, and also the additional protections and benefits. I know Tim will not feel the same way, but, Delta can be even greater with this, too.
once again on yet another site, BS.
Delta pilots – who are unionized – get profit sharing and, in fact, argue that they are the ones that should be credited for getting it for DL pilots which the company spread to other non-union employees.
DL doesn’t give profit sharing for any reason other than their employees – pilots and non-pilots deliver the best revenue performance in the industry.
DL knows how to butter its own bread – its employees.
I think that’s the point, tim
Delta took away the rich profit sharing plan from non union employees unilaterally.
The pilots refused to give it up so then delta gave it back to the non union employees — because of the unionized pilots… only
Delta showed their “largesse” by unilaterally taking it away
Non union people owe a union for their current profit sharing plan
Congratulations!!! I wish United valued its employees as much as Delta does.
I wonder why Delta’s financials are worse this year? Bonuses are lower.