Delta to Trim Overseas Flying by 10%, May Cut Jobs


By Mary Jane Credeur

March 10 (Bloomberg) -- Delta Air Lines Inc., the world’s largest carrier, said it will trim seats on international flights by an additional 10 percent because of the worsening recession and that it may need to shed more jobs.

The reductions will occur in the last four months of 2009 and are compared with the same period a year earlier, Delta said today in a regulatory filing. The Atlanta-based company didn’t say how the move would change its previous forecast for paring total seating capacity by 6 percent to 8 percent this year.

Delta will have to “reassess our staffing needs” to match the shrunken operations, Chief Executive Officer Richard Anderson and President Ed Bastian said in a memo to employees. “We must move quickly to adjust our capacity and stay in front of demand changes.”

New payroll cuts would build on the elimination of almost 2,100 jobs through a buyout program in February. That followed 6,000 cuts at Delta and Northwest Airlines before Delta bought the smaller carrier in October. Delta has 75,000 employees.

Delta rose 20 cents, or 4.7 percent, to $4.38 at 9:59 a.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading.

The biggest U.S. carriers have slashed 29,400 jobs and parked more than 500 jets since the start of 2008 to offset record fuel costs in last year’s first half and plunging travel demand. The airlines also trimmed flying by at least 10 percent last year, most of it on domestic routes.

Delta said the new international reductions will remove as much as 13 percent of its available seats on trans-Atlantic flights and as much as 14 percent on service across the Pacific.

Today’s filing was released before Delta’s presentation to a JPMorgan Chase & Co. airlines conference in New York City.