Delta Shareholders Re-Elect Board

Shareholders approve Say on Pay, auditors, and change in board size; defeat stock retention proposal

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Jun 27, 2014, 10:39 ET

NEW YORK, June 27, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Delta Air Lines' (NYSE: DAL) shareholders today voted, among other items, to re-elect the 14 incumbent members of the Board of Directors.

At the airline's annual meeting, shareholders approved an advisory vote on Delta's executive compensation (known as "Say on Pay") with a significant majority of the vote, while also ratifying Ernst & Young LLP as independent auditors by a similar margin. Shareholders also approved an increase to the maximum number of directors on the board. A stock retention proposal was voted down with less than 23 percent of votes cast.

"Delta's shareholders continue to recognize the success of the airline's strategy," said Delta Board Chairman Dan Carp. "We will continue to build on the momentum that has driven outstanding results for our shareholders and has made Delta a great place to work for our employees and the airline our customers want to fly."

Delta's strategy is producing the industry's best employee relations, customer service and financial performance. Employees have received pay increases, more than $500 million in profit sharing payments for 2013, and $1.4 billion toward defined benefit and defined contribution plans in 2013. Customers are experiencing the results of the company's significant investments in operational reliability and more than $2.5 billion in new aircraft, products, facilities and technology. Shareholders are enjoying strong earnings growth, an improving balance sheet, a stock price that has more than doubled in the last year and more than $700 million of cash returns through dividends and share buybacks.

Delta Air Lines serves nearly 165 million customers each year. This year, Delta was named the 2014 Airline of the Year by Air Transport World magazine and was named to FORTUNE magazine's 50 Most Admired Companies, in addition to being named the most admired airline for the third time in four years. With an industry-leading global network, Delta and the Delta Connection carriers offer service to 333 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 as well as a newly formed 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, New York-LaGuardia, Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Salt Lake City, Seattle and Tokyo-Narita. Delta has invested billions of dollars in airport facilities, 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, Facebook.com/delta and Delta's blog takingoff.delta.com.

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 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, including costs related to renewable fuel standard regulations; our ability to retain management and key employees; 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 war risk 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, 2013. Caution should be taken not to place undue reliance on our forward-looking statements, which represent our views only as of June 3, 2014, and which we have no current intention to update.

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SOURCE Delta Air Lines