ATLANTA, Feb. 17, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Delta Air Lines
(NYSE: DAL) today announced that it has contributed $350 million in shares of its common stock to
its pension plans. This is in addition to the $825 million in cash contributions the company
has already made to the plans this year.
To accomplish this contribution, the company issued 7.85 million shares from treasury. To avoid diluting existing
shareholders with this contribution, the company has entered into a $350 million accelerated share
repurchase (ASR) agreement. The ASR is part of Delta's existing $5 billion share repurchase
authorization and is in addition to the company's previous guidance of $425 million of share
repurchases for the March quarter under this authorization.
Delta Air Lines serves nearly 180 million customers each year. Delta was named to FORTUNE magazine's top 50 World's Most
Admired Companies in addition to being named the most admired airline for the fourth time in five years. Additionally, Delta has
ranked No.1 in the Business Travel News Annual Airline survey for an unprecedented five consecutive years. With an
industry-leading global network,
Delta and the Delta Connection carriers offer service to 328 destinations in 57 countries on six continents.
Headquartered in Atlanta, Delta employs nearly 80,000 employees worldwide and operates a
mainline fleet of more than 800 aircraft. The airline is a founding member of the SkyTeam global alliance and participates in the industry's leading trans-Atlantic joint venture with Air France-KLM and Alitalia as well as a joint venture with Virgin Atlantic. Including its worldwide alliance partners, Delta offers customers more than
15,000 daily flights, with key hubs and markets including Amsterdam, Atlanta, Boston, Detroit, Los
Angeles, Minneapolis/St. Paul, New York-JFK and LaGuardia, London-Heathrow,
Paris-Charles de Gaulle,
Salt Lake City, Seattle and Tokyo-Narita. Delta has invested
billions of dollars in airport facilities, global products and services, and technology to enhance the customer experience in the
air and on the ground. Additional information is available on the Delta News Hub, as well as delta.com, Twitter @DeltaNewsHub,
Google.com/+Delta, Facebook.com/delta and Delta's blog takingoff.delta.com.
Forward Looking Statements Statements in this press release that are not historical facts, including statements
regarding our estimates, expectations, beliefs, intentions, projections or strategies for the future, may be "forward-looking
statements" as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All forward-looking statements involve a number
of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the estimates, expectations, beliefs,
intentions, projections and strategies reflected in or suggested by the forward-looking statements. These risks and
uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the cost of aircraft fuel; the impact of rebalancing our hedge portfolio,
recording mark-to-market adjustments or posting collateral in connection with our fuel hedge contracts; the availability of
aircraft fuel; the effects of terrorist attacks or geopolitical conflict; the possible effects of accidents involving our
aircraft; the restrictions that financial covenants in our financing agreements will have on our financial and business
operations; labor issues; interruptions or disruptions in service at one of our hub or gateway airports; disruptions or security
breaches of our information technology infrastructure; our dependence on technology in our operations; the effects of weather,
natural disasters and seasonality on our business; the effects of an extended disruption in services provided by third party
regional carriers; failure or inability of insurance to cover a significant liability at Monroe's Trainer refinery; the impact of environmental regulation on the Trainer refinery, including costs
related to renewable fuel standard regulations; our ability to retain management and key employees; competitive conditions in the
airline industry; the effects of extensive government regulation on our business; the sensitivity of the airline industry to
prolonged periods of stagnant or weak economic conditions; and the effects of the rapid spread of contagious
illnesses.
Additional information concerning risks and uncertainties that could cause differences between actual results and
forward-looking statements is contained in our Securities and Exchange Commission filings, including our Annual Report on Form
10-K for the fiscal year ended Dec. 31, 2015. Caution should be taken not to place undue
reliance on our forward-looking statements, which represent our views only as of Feb. 17, 2016, and
which we have no current intention to update.
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SOURCE Delta Air Lines