Delta Air Lines gave its workers one heck of a Valentine’s Day present.
The Atlanta-based carrier doled out $1.4 billion in profit-sharing payments to its workers, a bonus check that worked out to 10.4% of their annual salary.
That’s more than double what the airline handed out last year and significantly higher than the $108 million that was shared in 2022. Since starting the profit-sharing program in 2007, Delta says it has given its employees $11 billion.
“Rewarding our people is fundamental to who we are at Delta,” said Delta CEO Ed Bastian in a statement. “Today is a prime opportunity to recognize their dedication and efforts in 2023.”
Delta created its profit-sharing program after the carrier emerged from a 19-month bankruptcy. Delta is largely a union-free carrier, with the exception of its pilots. The profit-sharing program was designed to boost worker morale.
This year’s payment works out to a bonus of a little more than one month’s salary. That’s big, but it’s not the biggest profit-sharing bonus the carrier has handed out. That came in 2019, when Delta split $1.6 billion among employees, then the equivalent of two months’ salary.
The carrier did not offer any profit sharing in 2020, as travel demand plunged due to the pandemic and Delta (and other airlines) reported heavy losses.
Delta hands out its profit sharing checks to employees every Valentine’s Day. While it’s not the only airline to offer that benefit to employees, Delta’s program is widely seen as the most generous of any airline or blue-chip company.
“We promised that at the point where the company would turn it around, our employees would receive the first fruits of those efforts,” Bastian, who helped set up the program in his previous role as CFO, told Fortune in 2017.
