Delta moves forward with pay raises despite trade uncertainty

Delta Air Lines confirmed Tuesday it will move forward with a previously-announced pay raise for employees starting June 1, weeks after it detailed how trade uncertainty had upended its profitability projections for 2025.

While the airline still expects to make a profit this year, it announced plans to cut flight capacity and shrink its headcount through attrition in response to dampened demand.

The 4% pay raise for frontline employees is roughly in line with annual raises since COVID-19. For the past two years it has given 5% raises, and in 2022 it boosted pay 4%.

The raises go to more than 80% of Delta’s employees worldwide. That doesn’t include unionized pilots and dispatchers who get compensation and raises according to negotiated contracts.

CEO Ed Bastian first announced the pay hikes in January, when the Atlanta-based airline was forecasting the best financial year in its history — coinciding with its centennial. Delta is the largest employer in metro Atlanta.

But in the months since, the effects of the Trump administration’s trade war on consumer and corporate travel demand upset the company’s rosy forecast.

During its first quarter earnings announcement, company leaders said the year was playing out “differently” than expected and that it would cut flight capacity in the back half of the year as a result.