ATLANTA, Nov. 20, 2006 (PRIMEZONE) -- Delta Air Lines today announced plans to recall approximately 700 additional maintenance employees beginning in mid-December. This latest recall expands on the approximately 200 previously furloughed maintenance employees that have been recalled during the last few months.
"Our plan is working. Our goals continue to be profitable growth and expansion as we work towards becoming a world-class maintenance service provider," said Tony Charaf, senior vice president of Technical Operations. "TechOps is in a position to achieve profitable growth and is already exceeding insourcing expectations for next year."
"The Technical Operations division has worked very hard to become competitive in the core aspects of the maintenance service business, and the recall of 700 maintenance professionals shows the significant progress they have made," said Jim Whitehurst, Delta's chief operating officer.
Earlier this month, Delta announced a recall of 1,000 flight attendants, in addition to the more than 200 who were recalled in September. Also in September, Delta announced its second pilot recall of 2006, with a total of approximately 130 pilots recalled this year. The company expects an additional pilot recall this year and is hiring in its Airport Customer Service and Reservations divisions.
Delta continues to make significant progress in all areas of its restructuring and remains on track to emerge from Chapter 11 during the first half of 2007 as a stand-alone carrier.
Delta Air Lines (Other OTC:DALRQ) offers customers service to more destinations than any global airline with Delta and Delta Connection carrier service to 290 destinations in 46 countries. With more than 70 new international routes added or announced in the last year, Delta is America's fastest growing international airline and is a leader across the Atlantic with flights to 28 trans-Atlantic destinations. To Latin America and the Caribbean, Delta offers more than 400 weekly flights to 49 destinations. Delta's marketing alliances also allow customers to earn and redeem SkyMiles on more than 14,000 flights offered by SkyTeam and other partners. Delta is a founding member of SkyTeam, a global airline alliance that provides customers with extensive worldwide destinations, flights and services. Including its SkyTeam and worldwide codeshare partners, Delta offers flights to 445 worldwide destinations in 92 countries. Customers can check in for flights, print boarding passes and check flight status at delta.com.
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Statements in this news 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 actions and decisions of our creditors and other third parties with interests in our Chapter 11 proceedings; our ability to obtain court approval with respect to motions in the Chapter 11 proceedings prosecuted from time to time; our ability to develop, prosecute, confirm and consummate one or more plans of reorganization with respect to the Chapter 11 proceedings and to consummate all of the transactions contemplated by one or more such plans of reorganization or upon which consummation of such plans may be conditioned; risks associated with third parties seeking and obtaining court approval to terminate or shorten the exclusivity period for us to propose and confirm one or more plans of reorganization, to appoint a Chapter 11 trustee or to convert the cases to Chapter 7 cases; our ability to obtain and maintain normal terms with vendors and service providers; our ability to maintain contracts that are critical to our operations; our ability to maintain adequate liquidity to fund and execute our business plan during the Chapter 11 proceedings and in the context of a plan of reorganization and thereafter; our ability to comply with financial covenants in our financing agreements; labor issues, including possible strikes or job actions by unionized employees; our ability to implement our business plan successfully; the cost of aircraft fuel; our ability to terminate our defined benefit pension plan for pilots; funding obligations with respect to our defined benefit pension plan for nonpilots; interruptions or disruptions in service at one of our hub airports; our increasing dependence on technology in our operations; our ability to retain management and key employees; restructurings by competitors; accidents involving our aircraft; the effects of terrorist attacks; and competitive conditions in the airline industry. Additional information concerning risks and uncertainties that could cause differences between actual results and forward-looking statements is contained in Delta's Securities and Exchange Commission filings, including its Form 10-K, filed on March 27, 2006 and its Form 10-Q, filed on Nov. 9, 2006. The risks and uncertainties and the terms of any reorganization plan ultimately confirmed can affect the value of our various pre-petition liabilities, common stock and/or other securities. No assurance can be given as to what values, if any, will be ascribed in the bankruptcy proceedings to each of these liabilities or securities. We believe that our currently outstanding common stock will have no value and will be canceled under any plan of reorganization we propose, and that the value of our various pre-petition liabilities and other securities is highly speculative. Accordingly, we urge that caution be exercised with respect to existing and future investments in any of these liabilities and/or securities. Investors and other interested parties can obtain information about Delta's Chapter 11 filing on the Internet at delta.com/restructure. Court filings and claims information are available at deltadocket.com. Caution should be taken not to place undue reliance on Delta's forward-looking statements, which represent Delta's views only as of Nov. 9, 2006, and which Delta has no current intention to update.