Delta could furlough 800-plus Atlanta-based pilots (hotel, gated, cost of)

[ATL Golfer]

$5.4B is not a lot of money. Interesting. About equals the amount they've paid in bonuses over the 2nd half of this last decade. Maybe the put some ofthat into reserves instead of breaking bonus records year over year.

Just booked a Delta flight. No change fare fees through Dec 31st. Its like ...like the good old days pre last crash!! Pandemic to do the right thing, temporarily.

United said Sunday (August 30th) that it was "permanently getting rid of change fees on all standard Economy and Premium cabin tickets for travel within the U.S."

C'mon Delta, you can do it.

[citidata18]

Originally Posted by ATL Golfer

$5.4B is not a lot of money. Interesting.

When your cost of revenue and operating expenses are over $35 Billion per year, it is not.

[Need4Camaro]

Originally Posted by ATL Golfer

$5.4B is not a lot of money. Interesting. About equals the amount they've paid in bonuses over the 2nd half of this last decade. Maybe the put some ofthat into reserves instead of breaking bonus records year over year.

Just booked a Delta flight. No change fare fees through Dec 31st. Its like ...like the good old days pre last crash!! Pandemic to do the right thing, temporarily.



C'mon Delta, you can do it.

Come on be serious here even if those bonuses had not been paid that $5.4 Billion would not have saved them from this. It likely would have long been depleted by this point. The airlines took a serious and very sudden blow from this.

[ATL Golfer]

Originally Posted by citidata18

When your cost of revenue and operating expenses are over $35 Billion per year, it is not.

Their entire profit for 2019 as $4.8B. So we gave them 120% of an entire year's profit. I don't care what their expenses are when they squandered profit on themselves. Wonder how much of the expense is depreciation of equipment that is in the 10s of Billions.

Come on be serious here even if those bonuses had not been paid that $5.4 Billion would not have saved them from this. It likely would have long been depleted by this point. The airlines took a serious and very sudden blow from this.

Right, and they can blow through their cash first (if they had any) and then get this to kick in. That would double the amount of time they could stave off a crisis like this.


To ya'lls point that $5.4B is not a lot of money ....then why can't they freaking reserve an equal amt when they cleared nearly that much just last year alone.

[JMatl]

This continued, years long bitterness is beyond the pale.

[Need4Camaro]

Originally Posted by ATL Golfer

To ya'lls point that $5.4B is not a lot of money ....then why can't they freaking reserve an equal amt when they cleared nearly that much just last year alone.

Are you serious? Can I ask has reality of what is really happening occurred to you?

None of the airlines worldwide have ANY chance of staving something like this off by their own financial means without dropping masses of operations and unfortunately, employees as well. none whatsoever. Air Travel was practically overnight cut by 90% and has not returned to anything close to pre-pandemic levels, nor will it for the foreseeable future and for a considerable period of time. The 5.4 Billion would have bought them maybe 2 - 3 more months in light of their operations (which would have been canceled anyway given the massive revenue drop, it would be reckless to steed into providing for an absent market) .. those employees were going to get laid off either way, maybe an additional month later.. maybe.. but you're making it like Delta could have staved this off and this is completely inaccurate. Delta is not the only company performing mass lay-offs to survive, thousands of companies have...I myself have been laid off and I am in tech.

[JMatl]

Originally Posted by Need4Camaro

Are you serious? Can I ask has reality of what is really happening occurred to you?

None of the airlines worldwide have ANY chance of staving something like this off by their own financial means without dropping masses of operations and unfortunately, employees as well. none whatsoever. Air Travel was practically overnight cut by 90% and has not returned to anything close to pre-pandemic levels, nor will it for the foreseeable future and for a considerable period of time. The 5.4 Billion would have bought them maybe 2 - 3 more months in light of their operations (which would have been canceled anyway given the massive revenue drop, it would be reckless to steed into providing for an absent market) .. those employees were going to get laid off either way, maybe an additional month later.. maybe.. but you're making it like Delta could have staved this off and this is completely inaccurate. Delta is not the only company performing mass lay-offs to survive, thousands of companies have...I myself have been laid off and I am in tech.

But, but it's DELTA! They deserve to be endlessly attacked, always...

[ATL Golfer]

Originally Posted by Need4Camaro

Are you serious? Can I ask has reality of what is really happening occurred to you?

None of the airlines worldwide have ANY chance of staving something like this off by their own financial means without dropping masses of operations and unfortunately, employees as well. none whatsoever. Air Travel was practically overnight cut by 90% and has not returned to anything close to pre-pandemic levels, nor will it for the foreseeable future and for a considerable period of time. The 5.4 Billion would have bought them maybe 2 - 3 more months in light of their operations (which would have been canceled anyway given the massive revenue drop, it would be reckless to steed into providing for an absent market) .. those employees were going to get laid off either way, maybe an additional month later.. maybe.. but you're making it like Delta could have staved this off and this is completely inaccurate. Delta is not the only company performing mass lay-offs to survive, thousands of companies have...I myself have been laid off and I am in tech.

Yeah, no kidding. But not all companies have the profit Delta has. They can burn through their own cash first before they put their hand out. Are you suggesting Bank's should not have reserves? Insurance? Airlines continually rely on taxpayer support and it is really troublesome to see how much money they suck out of the company in the good times. Particularly Delta as they have record setting bonuses year-over-year. Why what I'm saying is so bothersome to me is, well, interesting.

[Need4Camaro]

Originally Posted by ATL Golfer

Yeah, no kidding. But not all companies have the profit Delta has. They can burn through their own cash first before they put their hand out. Are you suggesting Bank's should not have reserves? Insurance? Airlines continually rely on taxpayer support and it is really troublesome to see how much money they suck out of the company in the good times. Particularly Delta as they have record setting bonuses year-over-year. Why what I'm saying is so bothersome to me is, well, interesting.

I understand that much, but even had they saved every possible penny they could, there is no way they could have coasted this out through their reserves, the first few months of this situation were mind-blowing and record setting in terms of losses in the travel industry and it happened very suddenly and very quickly. Delta is a much larger organization than many of the airlines world wide, therefor their profits are scaled to larger operations. They still would have had to severely scale down operations (or suffocate) while still tending to existing financial obligations with almost all of their income suddenly vanishing. Nothing can survive something like that. The economic fallout of a major airline such as Delta suddenly overnight vanishing would be far greater than $5.4 Billion through a much more widespread cataclysm.

There is usually a fair bit more foresight for economic slaughters such as what recently happened of which the airline industry could forecast, prepare and plan for. (not that any airline could truly account for something such as what is happening now) What happened here was very much an anomaly, I can't think of a time in history where so many industries, businesses, and organizations came to a sudden hault practically instantaneously. Not only did tourism travel fail but business travel also in domino affect canceled thousands of business related travel globally as to reduce liability on their behalf. They basically ran into a brick wall and are trying to mitigate further damage. Just sitting here and letting them fail, taking down thousands of associated operations would 'not' be best practice toward saving tax payers dollars because thousands of jobs would vanish overnight and many more taxpayers would quickly find themselves unemployed - government has to bail them out too, nor would it be best practice for setting up a recovery from this as we would have a much bigger problem in our hand, a literal hole in our logistics sector as well as vast swaths of the economy suddenly missing in terms of transportation, tourism, travel, business affairs, and it will not overnight recollect into functional operations anywhere near the level of Delta.

What you're insinuating by letting a major airline fall out of the sky will hurt ALOT more people than just Delta... and it will also cost far more than $5.4 Billion in economic damages.

[ATL Golfer]

I have not insinuated anything of the sorts. I don't think Delta should fail but ultimately if they did its not as if they would go away. They may be called something else.

I am merely suggesting that had they had reserves in place for leaner times (yes, I understand these times are unprecedented), they may be able to sustain operations longer burning their own cash reserves before needing public funding to survive.

It is apparent to me that the airline industry and Delta understands they are operating a daily business. Much like hotels, their business can stop with a flick of a switch. They also understand taxpayers will always be there to bail them when it happens so why keep cash in the business...we have given them no need to.