First, I must disclose my personal biases.

I have been a (very) frequent flier for nearly 40 years.  Long before the airlines had mileage programs (over the years, these loyalty programs have lost their luster, only benefiting the data collection for the airlines), I was a 100,000 mile flier on TWA and Continental.  Back when they defined quality airline travel.  To this day, I am an elite travel member of the two airlines we will be discussing today.  But, that will not influence the facts or my discussion of same.

The Washington Post today (note:  this was written a few weeks ago!) discussed how well Delta Airlines did last year.  While the Wall Street Journal decided to discuss United Airlines.

First, United.   Their fourth quarter revenue and profit soared- and their whole year picture was also up.  (Profits were $ 12 a share!)  They took two big hits- the first was the loss of revenue due to the continued unrest in Hong Kong and the other, not surprisingly, was the Boeing 737 grounding.  (Admittedly, this last factor is not as great an issue for United as it is for many other carriers- especially American and Southwest, which relied on the Max to get their passengers to their destinations.)  But, besides higher gross revenues for United, the other factor distinguishing their results was lower fuel costs.  (As of today, the price of natural gas is once again below $ 2!)

And, Delta?  Despite the fact that they felt tremendous impact from the 737 Max fiasco, Delta managed to develop it’s 10^th year in a row of profitability.

OK, Roy, so what?

Well, there is more…

About 10 days ago, Scott McCartney of the Wall Street Journal reported their annual results of the ‘best’ US airlines determination.

And, Delta came in first.  United didn’t come in last- only because American (which really has its roots in Allegheny [AKA Agony] Airlines and USAir) was there to shield the bottom rung.

So, being a good airline doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice profits.

Wait, wait!  There’s more.

Over the past 10 years, to develop some peace with their workers, the airlines have actually instituted profit-sharing programs.  It was a way to keep their wages down (often slashing them before this program began) to avoid even more massive layoffs during the Great Recession.

So, this year, United with it’s great profitability (which is why the Wall Street Journal headlined it) ‘graciously’ shared $ 491 million with its staff. An increase from 2018’s $ 334 million.  (By the way, Southwest, the #3 airline according to the Wall Street Journal, shelled out $ 544 million, which amounted to almost 11% of the employee payroll last year.  And, American- the bottom-ranked airline, which really HAS been hurt by the 737Max fiasco only shared $ 175 million or 1.5 % of employee earnings.)

Delta is handing out  (do I hear a drum roll anywhere?) $ 1.6 billion to its employees.  That’s about 16.6% of employee payroll.  In other words 45 to 60 days of additional pay to their employees.  And, for an even better touch, the money will be in their staff’s pocket on Valentine’s Day.  This is the 6^th year in a row they’ve provided at least $ 1 billion to their staff.

Maybe we all should be considering another airline for our next flight.