Delta announces massive $1.5 billion profit share

DALLAS — The morning after Southwest announced it would be sharing $620 million in profits with it’s employees, Delta Airlines has announced its employees will receive a portion of $1.5 billion in profits the Atlanta-based air carrier brought in last year.

Individual payouts for Delta employees will equal more than 21 percent of the employee’s’ 2015 earnings. For Delta’s 976 employees in North Texas, the payout totals more than $7.4 million. If all of the North Texas employees receive the same amount in profit sharing from Delta, it would mean each employee will receive $7,621.

Southwest announced Thursday it’s eligible employees will receive 15.6 percent of their annual salaries (equivalent to eight weeks’ pay) in its profit sharing. It was the third consecutive year the Dallas-based airline contributed a record dollar amount in profit sharing.

However, the dollar amount of Delta’s 2015 profit share is more than the last three years of Southwest’s profit sharing combined.

Delta is honoring employees Friday for the record-breaking performance with celebrations, including a 50-foot tall greeting card at the Delta General Offices that included the name of all 80,000 Delta employees.

For comparison, Southwest employs more than 49,000 people.

Originally published by KARE11