Delta to raise pay as airlines cope with travel rebound, ET TravelWorld News, ET TravelWorld

Delta Air Lines said Tuesday it will raise pay for its non-union employees by 5 per cent on April 1 and increase a pool used for merit raises.Among those getting the increases will be flight attendants, who have been the target of several close organising campaigns by unions.

The raises are far more modest than ones that Delta’s union pilots are voting on. That agreement would raise pilots’ pay by more than 30 per cent over the four-year life of the contract. Voting ends March 1.

Delta CEO Ed Bastian said by the end of the year, the airline will outfit more than 700 planes with high-speed, satellite-based broadband service from T-Mobile. It plans to expand free Wi-Fi to international and Delta Connection flights by the end of 2024. The service will use equipment from Viasat, a US-based satellite broadband provider.

Pilots are the highest-paid work group at airlines, and smaller carriers have struggled with a shortage of them.

Airlines have been hiring and raising pay to attract and keep workers as travel has recovered from the 2020 low point of the pandemic, when the number of passengers plunged and airlines paid employees to take early retirement.

Shares of Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines slipped about 1 per cent in afternoon trading.