Delta Shareholders Re-Elect Board

Shareholders approve executive compensation, auditors; defeat stock retention proposal

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Jun 27, 2013, 04:53 ET

NEW YORK, June 27, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Delta Air Lines' (NYSE: DAL) shareholders today voted to re-elect all 14 director nominees to the airline's Board of Directors, among other items, at the company's annual meeting.

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All 14 of Delta's returning directors received a substantial majority of the votes cast. In addition, according to the official vote tabulation, shareholders:

Approved an advisory vote on Delta's executive compensation with more than 99 percent of votes cast in favor of the compensation package.
Ratified the appointment of Ernst & Young LLP as independent auditors for the year ended Dec. 31, 2013, with more than 99 percent of votes cast in favor of ratification.
Defeated a proposal regarding an executive stock retention requirement, with the proposal receiving less than 19 percent of votes cast.

"Our strategy is working, and we have the momentum as we continue on the path to becoming the airline of choice for our customers, employees and shareholders," Delta CEO Richard Anderson told attendees at the meeting.

Some of Delta's accomplishments so far this year include:

Opening a new world-class Terminal 4 at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport as part of a $1.4 billion redevelopment project at JFK.
Closing a deal to purchase a 49 percent stake in Virgin Atlantic, which will allow for a trans-Atlantic joint venture between the airlines on nonstop flights between North America and the United Kingdom.
Announcing a comprehensive financial plan that includes a program to return $1 billion to shareholders over the next three years via a stock dividend and repurchase program and continued efforts to reduce debt.
Rewarding employees with $372 million in profit-sharing payments.
Being named the World's Most Admired Airline by Fortune magazine for the second time in three years.
Reporting the company's strongest first-quarter profit in more than a decade.
Significantly improving operations, with improvements in on-time performance, cancellations and customer complaints.
Continued investment in the airline's on-board service, with installation of full flat-bed seats in BusinessElite on nearly 40 percent of its widebody aircraft.

Delta Air Lines serves more than 160 million customers each year. Delta was named by Fortune magazine as the most admired airline worldwide in its 2013 World's Most Admired Companies airline industry list, topping the list for the second time in three years. With an industry-leading global network, Delta and the Delta Connection carriers offer service to 328 destinations in 64 countries on six continents. Headquartered in Atlanta, Delta employs nearly 80,000 employees worldwide and operates a mainline fleet of more than 700 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. Including its worldwide alliance partners, Delta offers customers more than 15,000 daily flights, with hubs in Amsterdam, Atlanta, Cincinnati, Detroit, Memphis, Minneapolis-St. Paul, New York-LaGuardia, New York-JFK, Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Salt Lake City and Tokyo-Narita. Delta is investing more than $3 billion in airport facilities and global products, services and technology to enhance the customer experience in the air and on the ground. Additional information is available on delta.com, Twitter @Delta, Google.com/+Delta and Facebook.com/delta.

Forward Looking Statements

Statements in this press release that are not historical facts, including statements regarding our estimates, expectations, beliefs, intentions, projections or strategies for the future, may be "forward-looking statements" as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All forward-looking statements involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the estimates, expectations, beliefs, intentions, projections and strategies reflected in or suggested by the forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the cost of aircraft fuel; the availability of aircraft fuel; the impact of posting collateral in connection with our fuel hedge contracts; the impact of significant funding obligations with respect to defined benefit pension plans; the impact that our indebtedness may have on our financial and operating activities and our ability to incur additional debt; the restrictions that financial covenants in our financing agreements will have on our financial and business operations; labor issues; interruptions or disruptions in service at one of our hub airports; our dependence on technology in our operations; disruptions or security breaches of our information technology infrastructure; the ability of our credit card processors to take significant holdbacks in certain circumstances; the possible effects of accidents involving our aircraft; the effects of weather, natural disasters and seasonality on our business; the effects of an extended disruption in services provided by third party regional carriers; failure or inability of insurance to cover a significant liability at the Trainer refinery; the impact of environmental regulation on the Trainer refinery; our ability to retain management and key employees; our ability to use net operating losses to offset future taxable income; competitive conditions in the airline industry; the effects of extensive government regulation on our business; the effects of terrorist attacks; the effects of the rapid spread of contagious illnesses; and the costs associated with insurance.

Additional information concerning risks and uncertainties that could cause differences between actual results and forward-looking statements is contained in our Securities and Exchange Commission filings, including our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended Dec. 31, 2012. Caution should be taken not to place undue reliance on our forward-looking statements, which represent our views only as of June 4, 2013, and which we have no current intention to update.

SOURCE Delta Air Lines