Delta Pilots Reject Tentative Contract

Delta pilots have rejected a tentative contract agreement, putting in doubt both the deal and the airline's plans to order extra aircraft.

Nearly 7,000, or 65 percent, of voting pilots rejected the contract, according to Delta's Master Executive Council, part of the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA). Around 97 percent of eligible pilots voted.

Delta has said it would purchase 20 used and 40 new single-aisle planes from Boeing to replace older aircraft if the new contract was ratified. The orders were not firm.

Delta and Boeing declined to comment.

Delta pilots opposed to the proposed contract said it offered slight gains in light of Delta's growing profits and that higher wages meant sacrificing more-lucrative profit-sharing. They said changes to sick leave and other work rules offset the gains, criticism the union has called deceptive.

The Delta unit of ALPA will convene on July 21 to determine its next step and reassess its strategic plan, chairman Mike Donatelli said in a letter to pilots.

Although investors reacted positively to the news, the negative vote is a setback for Delta, which set a goal of concluding a deal months ahead of schedule.

In a fact sheet for pilots, the union quoted Delta's chief executive Richard Anderson as saying, "Failure to ratify the agreement will lead to a very different and longer path that will not result in a better deal. Uncertainty will prevail, and that will not be good for anybody."

Delta said it could not confirm the comment.

The pilots' current contract has a December 31 target date for revision. That contract will remain in place even if the airline misses the deadline, as has been the case for some of Delta's US peers.

Both the pilots union and management had backed the tentative agreement.