Delta Air Lines 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.