Delta and pilots reach tentative accord

It may be premature to exhale fully, but air travelers can at least breathe a preliminary sigh of relief now that Delta Air Lines and negotiators for the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) have reached a tentative accord on a deal that could avert a carrier-killing strike.

Terms of the possible pact were not announced.

ALPA’s Master Executive Council (MEC), the leadership body for Delta’s pilots, still must decide whether to put the tentative agreement before Delta pilots for a vote. Should pilots approve the pact, it would still have to pass muster with the United States Bankruptcy Court.

Should all those things fall into place, Delta would stand a solid chance of emerging from Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

A source close to Delta Air Lines’ pilots corps told Cheapflights.com Flight News shortly before the tentative deal was announced that he felt the airline and its disgruntled cockpit crewmembers would find common ground – avoiding a strike, and saving the carrier from almost certain shutdown.

“I think they will extend the deadline and sign a deal”, said the source.

That information came the same day as The Atlanta-Journal Constitution reported “hints of progress [in talks] that might at least delay a showdown.”

Tomorrow, Saturday, April 15, was the deadline for an arbitration panel to rule on whether the nation’s third-largest airline could void its contract with its pilots, who are members of the powerful Airline Pilots Association. ALPA said it would strike if the contract was discarded. That, says Delta management, would kill the airline.

The traveling public was understandably skitterish about the Delta dilemma, weighing options that included booking away from the carrier. For its part, the airline insists that customers can continue to book Delta “with confidence”, says Edward H. Bastian, Delta’s executive vice president, chief financial officer and head of the airlines’ in-court restructuring efforts. “Our pilots are performing professionally, flying as scheduled, and together with all Delta employees, are taking good care of our customers.”

Delta, currently flying under the protective cloak of Chapter 11 bankruptcy, asked its pilots to take an additional 18 per cent pay cut. That would have been the second such fiscal body blow in two years. Prior to entering Chapter 11, pilots had already acceded to a one-third pay cut.

All the while Delta and its pilots negotiated, the rising price of jet fuel made their jobs harder. The airline just increased fuel surcharges on overseas flights by as much as $38 per round-trip ticket.

© Cheapflights Ltd Jerry Chandler