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Delta Air Lines, Inc. (DAL)

Q4 2008 Earnings Call· Tue, Jan 27, 2009

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Transcript

Media

Management

Liz Fedor – Minneapolis Star Tribune Harry Weber – The Associated Press Mary Jane Credeur – Bloomberg News Kelly Yamanouchi – Atlanta Journal Corey Dade – Wall Street Journal Mary [inaudible] – Detroit Free Press Andy Compart – Aviation Daily

Operator

Operator

Welcome to the Delta Airlines fourth quarter and calendar year 2008 financial results conference call. My name is Cynthia and I will be your coordinator. At this time all participants are in a listen only mode until we conduct the question and answer session following the presentation. (Operator Instructions) I would now like to turn the call over to Jill Greer, Director of Investor Relations for Delta Airlines.

Jill Greer

Management

Thank you for joining us today to discuss Delta’s December 2008 quarter and full year financial results. Joining us from Atlanta today are Richard Anderson, Chief Executive Officer and Member of the Board of Directors; Ed Bastian, Delta’s President; and Hank Halter, our Chief Financial Officer. Also joining us after the call during the Q&A session will be Glen Hauenstein, Executive Vice President of Network and Revenue Management; Mike Campbell, Executive Vice President of HR and Labor Relations; Paul Jacobson, Senior Vice President and Treasurer; and Ned Walker, Senior Vice President and Chief Communications Officer. Richard will begin the call with a Delta and industry overview of 2008 as well as Delta’s flight plan for 2009. Ed will then address our 2008 financial performance and what the airline anticipates as we go in to 2009. Hank will then conclude the comments with a review of Delta’s cost performance and liquidity. We’ve allocated 25 minutes for executive comments. After their comments we’ve allocated 25 minutes for questions from the analyst. We’ll then conclude the call with a 10 minute Q&A for the media. When we get to the Q&A I would like to request that you limit yourself to one question and a brief follow up. That should allow us to get as many questions in as possible during today’s briefing. Today’s discussion contains forward-looking statements that represent our beliefs or expectations about future events. All forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause the actual result to differ materially from the forward-looking statements. Some of the factors that may cause such differences are described in our SEC filings. We’ll also discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures. You can find the reconciliation of those non-GAAP measures on our investor relations website at www.Delta.com. With that, I’ll turn the call over to our Chief Executive Officer.

Richard H. Anderson

Management

2008 was a successful year for Delta filled with a number of pretty remarkable achievements in the face of very significant challenges. Those challenges being high fuel prices earlier in 2008 and of course the difficulties in the worldwide economy that we face today. Delta completed a historical merger with Northwest and a smooth integration process is well under way. In 2008 we took quick and decisive action to reduce capacity in response to rising fuel prices. We grew our top line much better than industry at 8% and maintained cost discipline while continuing to invest prudently in our employees and our underlying businesses. I think this is the really important part of the call which is to separate the fuel hedging part of our business from the underlying airline business. If we were buying fuel at market prices we would have reported $166 million net profit in 4Q excluding special charges and we would have had an operating profit or a projected operating profit in the first quarter of 2009. That’s the key message. When you separate what’s happening in the fuel environment and look at the fundamentals of the core business, we think we’re quite well positioned. This is probably best illustrated by the fact that if you take the combined Delta NW, we had a $160 million operating profit in 2008 despite a $4.5 billion run up in fuel. So, the point is to really sort of look at the underlying business separate from the fuel. As we’ve said repeatedly on these calls we’re really committed to capacity discipline and given the flexibility that our fleet gives us to idle airplanes, return airplanes and basically do it at no capital costs it’s give us the ability to adapt quickly to changes in fuel and the demand environment.…

Edward H. Bastian

Management

Before I get started, I want to echo Richard’s appreciation to the Delta team for all of their hard work and just outstanding effort through a tough 2008 and we’re looking forward to a much better 2009. It was an incredibly challenging year and everyone stepped up to ensure Delta maintained its leadership position in the industry and we thank them all for their efforts. For the December quarter excluding special charges and the impact of out of period fuel hedges, Delta reported a net loss of $340 million, the equivalent of $0.50 per share on a base of 682 million fully diluted shares. These results including standalone Delta for the entire quarter and Northwest results from October 30th through the end of the year. I’d like to point out that these results are in line with the guidance we issued in December. The negative impact of non-cash purchase accounting which was not included in our guidance impacted expense by roughly $80 million or $0.12 of EPS. On a GAAP basis we reported a net loss of $1.4 billion in the December quarter which included special charges totaling $1 billion. The special charges included a $904 million non-cash charge for merger related equity awards that issued or vested in connection with the merger, $65 million in merger related severance charges and other merger related expenses and $18 million of charges associated with our move out of Concourse C at the Cincinnati airport and a $20 million impairment taken on our auction rate securities. In addition, our GAAP net loss also included a $91 million impact for out of period fuel hedges. These are contracts that were in the Northwest portfolio that did not qualify for hedge accounting. If you were to exclude the special items and the impact of the…

Hank Halter

Management

On the cost side, Delta people across the system me the challenge of improving productivity to help mitigate the impact of the high fuel costs and slowing economy. On a combined basis mainline chasm excluding fuel and special items increased 3% year-over-year to $0.0729. Purchase accounting impacts related primarily to mark-to-market of Northwest’s pension plan assets increased operating expense by $33 million or $0.08 for mainline non-fuel chasm. If you exclude that impact and the effect of some prior year credits at Northwest combined mainline non-fuel chasm was essentially flat year-over-year and in line with our expectations. When you look on a standalone basis as Richard mentioned, Delta’s mainline non-fuel unit costs were down 1% in the December quarter while Northwest rose up 6% excluding purchase accounting again, driven by some prior year credit at Northwest. Looking at non-operating expenses on a combined basis, non-operating expenses increased $174 million in the December 2008 quarter due to $77 million of foreign exchange losses, $47 million in higher expenses due to non-cash purchase accounting and $66 million in lower interest income. The purchase accounting impacts on non-operating expense were driven primarily by the amortization of a debt discount to reflect Northwest debt at fair market value as required due to the merger. We will be facing some cost pressures in 2009 from pension expense and from the timing of taking out costs related to capacity reductions. Although capacity cuts are immediate and ongoing, it will take two to three quarters to fully remove the related costs from the business, just as we saw in 2008. As a result, we’re expecting full year 2009 mainline non-fuel unit costs to be up 5% to 7% and that’s on a 2008 combined mainline non-fuel chasm base of $0.0719. We’re targeting flat mainline non-fuel unit costs…

Jill Greer

Management

We’re now ready for questions from the analysts. We’re now ready for question from analysts. Operator will you please review the process for asking a question and again, we ask everyone to limit themselves to one question with a brief follow up.

Operator

Operator

(Operator Instructions) Your first question comes from Michael Linenberg – Merrill Lynch. Michael Linenberg – Merrill Lynch: Two questions, when I look at your RASM guidance for the year and I look at that with respect for where your capacity is, I get top line per passenger down in the call it 10% to 12% level. I think back to your investor day in December you had a target of down 8% to 12% for the industry. The question is, is it your view that you’re going to be closer to where the industry is or do you have a marginally lower forecast for the industry baked in to your assumptions.

Edward H. Bastian

Management

I wouldn’t say that we’ve radically changed our view from what the industry is doing. I think what we want to do is plan to be prudent in a volatile market. The clarity of our view on the demand picture is very muddy. I don’t think you’re going to hear a whole lot of clarity this earnings season and we just want to make certain that with our capacity plan and our cost and our liquidity as we’re entering in to a rocky year that we’re well prepared to manage it. So no, I would not say that we’ve incrementally changed our view. Michael Linenberg – Merrill Lynch: Then my second question and maybe this is for Glen, can you just give us what you’re seeing out there on pricing initiatives domestic versus international? I’m curious on the revenue decline in international, how much of that is fuel surcharge because when we last talked oil was at $100 and now it’s down a lot. In some cases it seemed like the fuel surcharge was as much as 50% of the total fair, maybe even more. GG Clearly international is being more impacted than domestic currently and certainly the reduction in capacity domestically has done a good job in offsetting a significant decline in demand. Internationally you don’t have that same scenario going on as the international lags are usually late in the process as they eliminate capacity or reduce capacity but we have seen some movement from the international carriers lately in reducing capacity so that’s an optimistic development. Yes, the fuel surcharges have gone down. It depends on the country, it depends on the region. They are very sticky so it takes a long time for them to come down but the bias is definitely down. To the extent…

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from Gary Chase – Barclays Capital. Gary Chase – Barclays Capital: Just looking at the guidance for the first quarter and trying to back in to the revenue assumptions that you’re making, depending on what kind of costs you want to assume it looks like your projecting consolidated RASM down somewhere in the 5 to 7 range. We know the Easter shift out of the first quarter would have had an impact on that so when I think about that relative to a down 4 full year, I guess the first quarter isn’t that surprising to me but it feels more conservative. As we move through the back half of the year any thoughts on what’s underpinning that? Do you think it’s going to get worse in the interim and then recover in the third and forth or do we just have the 5 to 7 wrong for 1Q?

Edward H. Bastian

Management

I wouldn’t say that you’re wrong Gary, we’re not giving a specific first quarter RASM guidance because I’m not sure it would be responsible with all the uncertainty in the marketplace in the weakest quarter of the year. We do expect the sequential quarters to improve. We’ve got a number of factors going to our advantage, certainly the incremental capacity reductions that not just Delta but the industry will be taking over the course of the year will help. Certainly, the merger benefits as we get further in to cross fleeting will help. Another thing we didn’t mention in giving the capacity guidance but recall that embedded in our capacity guidance we have growth particularly in some international markets that are being driven by the merger. So, our core business is actually down two to three points on top of the -6 to -8. So, as all those initiatives start to kick in over the course of the year we do expect to see some improvement. But, on balance we expect 2009 to be a tough year on the revenue front. Gary Chase – Barclays Capital: But it doesn’t sound like you’ve got much in the way of an underlying recovery baked in, is that a fair statement?

Hank Halter

Management

No, we do not expect our fourth quarter ’09 RASM necessarily to be better than the fourth quarter ’08 but we see it improved from where we sit today in the first quarter. Gary Chase – Barclays Capital: Then could you just explain, could you put a little more color on the Chasm experience? I know the pension went from three points to four points so that’s half of the change since the December meeting. Can you tell us what the other half is? Also, the $80 million that you’re pointing out as purchase accounting expenses, non-cash purchase accounting in 4Q, should we expect that to continue for all of 2009 or was that some kind of a one-time item?

Hank Halter

Management

Related to the purchase accounting, in the fourth quarter 2008 we did have roughly $33 million of purchase accounting hitting the op ex expense line so that affected our fourth quarter chasm and that’s the mark-to-market on those Northwest pension assets required by the merger. In 2009 and forward, the impact of purchase accounting [won’t] be in the non-operating section of the P&L and you can expect the rate related to the debt discount amortization to be approximately $300 million for the full year. Again, that will affect only the non-op section for the most part. That fourth quarter expense was a one-time event as a result of the merger. Looking at our chasm guidance for the full year, we do expect the pension to drive about four points of chasm pressure on that guidance. So, we’re up 5% o 7% for the full year, ex pension that’s up about 1% to 3% then it’s just the timing of getting the capacity related costs out. We are committed and will get the costs out and get them flat by fourth quarter 2009 absent the pension expense. But really, what you’re seeing is just the difference of timing of the pacing of getting the cost out.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from Ray Neidl – Calyon Securities. Ray Neidl – Calyon Securities: It seems like 2009 is shaping up to be an even worse economic year than we previously thought. I think that you kind of gave hints to that at least in the early part of the year. I’m just wondering what your flexibility about taking down capacity to a much greater degree without compromising the system?

Edward H. Bastian

Management

Ray, we don’t have any limitations on our ability to put the right capacity in to the system. So, we don’t have any contractual obligations to fly a certain level of flying so we will adjust and you will continue to see us stay in front of the soft economic environment with capacity discipline.

Richard H. Anderson

Management

We have a low fixed cost fleet and we have plenty of airplanes that are either coming off lease or plenty of airplanes that have no cash capital costs. In 2008 we exhibited a really good ability to be able to pull the capacity first and pull it quickly and then be able to get the costs out. I’m particularly how we ended up with our non-fuel chasm at main line Delta in 4Q and we have programs underway right now, voluntary programs to further reduce our staffing. I think we’ve done a good job demonstrating quick action and you can expect us to continue to do that. Ray Neidl – Calyon Securities: Also, the cash bleed, it was a little bit greater than we thought, I think you gave a great explanation of that with the fuel hedges and the pension program but the balance sheet looks like it was a little weaker than I was expecting post merger. It looks like it’s a little more highly leveraged. Is that the case? And is your goal still to get that decapitalization down towards around 50% to 60%.

Hank Halter

Management

Yes, it is Ray. The cash collateral from the fuel hedges I think at the end of the year was about $1.1 billion and that was the most significant impact on our balance sheet position from what we had let you guys see when we had the investor conference in early December. It’s probably going to take us a couple of years, a couple of three years to get down to that level as a practical matter. But, we’re looking at 2009 as being operating cash flow positive to the tune of about $3 million and we expect to build cash in 2009. So, I know this call has focused a lot on the economic outlook and the revenue environment, the flip side of that is that we expect the fuel expenses to offset any revenue softness by at least two to one in 2009 which is going to be a very positive cash story for us.

Richard H. Anderson

Management

We ended the quarter with almost $6.2 billion in cash and liquidity on the balance sheet. I think the key fact there was our ability to actual raise a fair amount of cash in the quarter from non-debt sources. So, you can expect as we move through 2009 that we’ll continue to maintain high cash balances and we do even in the first quarter expect to generate, because the fuel hedge is reversed, so we expect to generate cash in the first quarter.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from Jamie Baker – J. P. Morgan. Jamie Baker – J. P. Morgan: Hank, a clarification on liquidity, you’re at $5 billion right now if you exclude the hedge collateral which I think is how most of us model it. Your guidance is for $7 billion at year end, does that $7 billion have any hedge collateral in it or are you implying $2 billion of true liquidity build through the year? Also, hoping for some more clarity on the revised Amex relationship principally, what if any, cash payments were actually received in the fourth quarter.

Hank Halter

Management

Related to the yearend balance of $7 billion, by the time we get to the middle of the year, nearly all of our hedge positions that are requiring the hedge margin to be posted will have settled so that $7 billion balance at the end of the year is free of margin postings. Related to the Amex cash received, we did receive a $1 billion in the fourth quarter when we signed the agreement and then going forward the agreement will provide for additional benefit over the next two years of another $1 billion based on the contract terms and changes in the program. Jamie Baker – J. P. Morgan: Just a follow up, not to beat a dead horse on demand Glen, but a lot of new international markets were turning on around this time last year and that probably contributed to some reasonably healthy ramp in Q4. I’m wondering if you strip that out if you were able to discuss Q4 RASM, or better yet Q1 demand more on a same store sales basis so to speak? GGAgain, not to beat a dead horse I think we hit the highlights there. There’s actually some core strengthens in there, surprisingly some core strengthens even in some of the new markets so you have kind of a mixed bag of some really good things and some really awful things and so we’re trying to address the really awful things and do a little less of them.

Edward H. Bastian

Management

Just a quick one on your question on the fuel hedge collateral, the $1 billion I think you’re right when you look at what the free cash or the unrestricted cash level of the company at the end of the year is. Well, what that means is that we have prepaid over $1 billion of next year’s fuel bill which is going to be a fairly significant cash flow positive for us in 2009. So, that’s why when we look at the cash position in aggregate we feel confident around that $7 billion estimate for the end of ’09.

Jill Greer

Management

We have time for one more question from the analysts.

Operator

Operator

We’ll take our last question from Hunter Keay – Stifel Nicolaus & Company. Hunter Keay – Stifel Nicolaus & Company: I was wondering, you guys describe the four-way JV, the Transatlantic JV as 15% plus EBIT margin business and very profitable but I’m wondering how that sort of stands up given what’s going on obviously with the backdrop? And, maybe how much of that profitability was really pricing versus say maybe some cost efficiency that you guys were able to leverage? And, do you guys think that can still be a high teen EBIT margin business given what’s going on in that market right now. GG We’re working very hard with Air France right now to conclude the Air France KLM joint venture agreement and for those of you who have been following this I think another important development is that Air France was the winning candidate in the Alitalia bid off so that really gives us I think an incredible position in Europe point of sale. The balance of the JV is on both sides, on reducing costs for both carriers and I think that is one we will actually accelerate given this economic environment and then again, selling more on each other and selling more differently on each other. When you put Air France, KLM and Alitalia together, by far the largest frequent flyer program and by far the most corporate accounts and we still have not levered that yet and that’s what the joint venture is all about. Of course now, with the merger of Northwest and Delta we have the largest corporate accounts on this side of the pond and the two greatest US hubs in JFK and Atlanta and the two greatest European hubs in Amsterdam and in Charles de Gaulle. So, when we put the frequent flyer programs together, when we put the corporate sales together, when we put the hubs together and synchronize them I think it’s on both sides of the ledger that’s going to drive both unit revenues and unit costs to get those kinds of margins. And, I think they are fully still achievable even in this environment. Hunter Keay – Stifel Nicolaus & Company: So it sounds like you guys have no intention really of scaling back on the capacity side of the JV, if this doesn’t turn out as expected. If you do change your mind, are you willing, are you able to actually sort of just take a hatchet to this Transatlantic capacity if necessary? GG We have no levers in the current agreement on capacity levels so that is not what I said. I think what I said was that we’re fully confident that we will achieve those margins even in this kind of economic environment and we have no constraints with any of the carriers as far as capacity in this environment.

Richard H. Anderson

Management

Let me just add a point to that, if you go back to the guidance that Ed gave for the full year we expect consolidated international to be down 3% to 5%. Glen highlighted the ongoing efforts that we have to right size capacity in particular markets and I believe he illustrated the London market. That’s really indicative of what we will continue to do in terms of matching capacity to demand and that’s true domestically and it’s true internationally hence, our guidance for consolidated international being down 3% to 5%. The antitrust immunity allows us to jointly plan and schedule the airline across the Transatlantic with both KLM and Air France and we’ve done that and will continue to do that.

Edward H. Bastian

Management

Just one final note [inaudible] one of the joint venture Heathrow and London is included so all of these reductions were actually in the joint venture that already exists. So, that demonstrates the flexibility we have.

Jill Greer

Management

Now, I’d like to turn the call over to Ned Walker, Delta’s Senior Vice President and Chief Communication Officer.

John E. Walker

Analyst

We’ll go ahead and begin the media Q&A at this point. Operator, if you could review the process for the media to ask the media to ask a question. Once again, for the press, if we could ask if you would have one question with a brief follow up we’ll try to get everybody on with that.

Operator

Operator

(Operator Instructions) Your first question comes from Liz Fedor – Minneapolis Star Tribune. Liz Fedor – Minneapolis Star Tribune: I’d like to follow up on a point Ed made in his opening remarks, Ed you said that you were seeing the weakest demand in the Cincinnati and the Detroit hubs, of the Delta hubs system wide I am of course the most interested in what’s happening in Minneapolis St. Paul. Can you give us some more color or what’s going on there since there is a large business community here?

Edward H. Bastian

Management

Sure Liz and Glen can provide some additional color as well. We’re seeing softness throughout the domestic economy so it’s all relative. I think if you look at what’s going on in the industrial base in regions such as Detroit, Michigan, Ohio, we’re certainly seeing a reduction in the travel and the demand as measured against Minneapolis. Minneapolis is staying relatively healthy all things considered. I mean it’s down but it’s not down nearly to the extent that we’re seeing in other parts and I would say the same thing is true for Atlanta. Atlanta and Salt Lake are also looking better than the mid central part of some of our domestic flying. Liz Fedor – Minneapolis Star Tribune: Glen did you have anything to add to that? GG I think Ed did a great job in describing it. Liz Fedor – Minneapolis Star Tribune: Just a brief follow up Ed, as the CEO of Northwest approximately how many people from the Northwest workforce will likely take the voluntary buyouts?

Edward H. Bastian

Management

I don’t know Liz. We don’t have a specific Northwest target in mind. We mentioned a week ago that we were looking at a potential of up to 2,000 in terms of expectations across both Delta and Northwest. We’ve had some good take rates thus far and I think it’s a good program.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from Harry Weber – The Associated Press. Harry Weber – The Associated Press: This is for Ed or Glen, I was hoping that you could provide some more color on what you all are seeing and hearing from travelers as far as the travel decisions they are making? And also, based on the continued demand weakness do you expect to see Delta and other airlines offer fare sales more often and for longer periods than usual? And maybe what other things you all are considering to try to reel in customers and extra revenue, could we eventually see fees for carryon bags and things like that? GG I think what we’re seeing is that people are hesitant to make investments and their hesitant to make investments in their future whether or not they’re looking at stock portfolios, washer and dryers or airline tickets. If you think about what we’re seeing from a shift, we’re seeing the demand curve move much closer to the day of departure which actually means that the leisure traveler is paying slightly more than he did last year and you have what I think is segregating almost out to the people who are unsure about their future or unemployed who are not traveling and the people who feel comfortable in their future and feel secure who are traveling but their planning a little bit closer in. So, sitting in the airline pricer seat you have to say okay if people are either going to travel or not going to travel does offering a slightly lower fare stimulate more people off. So, what we’re seeing is that the slightly lower fares don’t seem to be driving the decision process so I don’t think you’ll see fare structures that are significantly lower than last year’s level. Harry Weber – The Associated Press: And as far as fees, do you eventually see perhaps fees for carryon bags? There’s very little left I suppose that airlines haven’t tried as far as fees but, that’s one thing.

Richard H. Anderson

Management

No, we do not see fees for carryon bags. To give a little bit more background to Glen’s comment the real way that we manage the revenue side of our business by being certain that we put the right capacity in response to consumer demand. That’s the key thing that we do, and it’s the great thing about an airplane, you can move an airplane from market-to-market or in our case given that we have a lot of airplanes that are paid for or going off lease we can idle the airplane until we have better times. So, our main lever in making certain that our revenue equation works is to make certain that we match our capacity by market, by time channel, by airplane type precisely to the consumer demand.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from Mary Jane Credeur – Bloomberg News. Mary Jane Credeur – Bloomberg News: You talked about Cincinnati and Detroit being among the weakest, can you give me a sense of how weak that is? Is that a -10, is that a -15? And, have you made further cut backs on those areas and if not, why not?

Edward H. Bastian

Management

No, we don’t give that level of advance detail for competitive reasons. But, I will tell you that the demand trends are indicative of what you’re seeing across the economic landscape. Michigan is in a very difficult place with respect to the economy as is Ohio. I think it mirrors up with what you’re seeing. We have taken a fairly significant step to restructure the Cincinnati hub and I expect it’s going to pay a pretty good return in terms of the restructuring that we’ve done. Detroit on the other hand is not just premised on what’s going on in the local Michigan economy, it’s a major flow point for us and it’s a great facility so the Detroit facility is doing quite well.

Richard H. Anderson

Management

I’d just add one thing to that and that is to the point that Ed made about capacity in Cincinnati. We’ve completely retimed the network at Cincinnati to provide far more utility and connectivity through a [omni bank] structure and very shortly we’re going to be rolling out an new fare structure in Cincinnati and the combination of those things we believe will dramatically respond to the demand environment. Mary Jane Credeur – Bloomberg News: What do you mean by the new fare structure?

Richard H. Anderson

Management

We don’t have specifics out yet but between a combination of both our network strategy and our fare strategy we expect to see nice improvement in Cincinnati. Mary Jane Credeur – Bloomberg News: One quick follow up, what about the shuttle, you mentioned that also had some weakness. Are you considering idling that or doing away with it? I mean, how weak is it?

Edward H. Bastian

Management

No, we’re not we are moving some of those flights on to Embraer aircraft off of the main line but no, we have no plans to discontinue the shuttle.

Richard H. Anderson

Management

The shuttle is an important part of the overall product offering in the New York, Boston and Washington network strategy so it continues to be an important part of the strategy. GG One qualification is that these are not normal regional jets when we say Embraers, these are actually E-175s which are actually the most comfortable airplanes out there so more comfort with a few fewer seats in the Washington market which is working quite well. We just started that in January and customers seem to really like it.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from Kelly Yamanouchi – Atlanta Journal. Kelly Yamanouchi – Atlanta Journal: I’m wondering given your reduction in international capacity and the weakness in international markets, is your long term outlook for international affected at all by that? And, how important is the Atlanta international terminal to your future?

Edward H. Bastian

Management

International continues over the long term to be an important part of the network strategy. We’ve stated a long term goal to move close to 50% of our capacity devoted to the international market and over the long term we will continue with that strategy. 2009 will result in some changes obviously because of the capacity changes but overall I believe our mix will actually probably go up a bit and continue to go up in 2009 in terms of international capacity versus domestic. Second, Atlanta is a very important part of our network just as our other domestic hubs are important gateways and we’re very hopeful that we can continue to work with the city of Atlanta to successfully complete the new terminal to support the long term expansion of our international network?

Edward H. Bastian

Management

No timeline but I think the important thing to keep in mind is that Atlanta continues to be a really important part and will always be a very important part of our international network and therefore we look forward to working with the mayor in getting the international terminal built. Kelly Yamanouchi – Atlanta Journal: A follow up, how many non-frontline employees have been laid off so far and how many more do you expect to make?

Edward H. Bastian

Management

We haven’t had any layoffs of employees.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from Corey Dade – Wall Street Journal. Corey Dade – Wall Street Journal: A quick question, if you could walk us through a little bit of the $500 million in synergies you guys are projecting for ’09 and if you see any headwinds or factors that might prevent you all from realizing them by the end of ’09 considering all the different integration pieces that have to happen?

Hank Halter

Management

Related to the integration synergies for 2009, we’ve targeted $500 million of benefit and we’re very confident of achieving that $500 million despite the challenged economy that exists today. Those synergy benefits come from across the company. There’s a portion of them that deal with the network on the revenue side, our frequent flyer program loyalty, we’ve got cost benefits due to efficiencies across the company and all the different divisions and also given that Delta is now the world’s largest airline there are scale efficiencies that we can also benefit from. So, synergies will ramp up during the year but again, as I mentioned, we fully expect to achieve those $500 million despite the challenging recessionary environment that we’re experiencing.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from Mary [inaudible] – Detroit Free Press. Mary [inaudible] – Detroit Free Press: We’ve talked a bit about Detroit but I’m wondering if you could give me a bit more detail about what you’re seeing as far as the demand decline, what might be driving that in Detroit? And, if you can talk about whether or not you plan any cut backs in site operations here? GG Obviously I think what’s driving some of the demand reduction is the state of the automotive industry and certainly as the year wound on the travel and the discretionary purchasing not just on a corporate basis with our automotive accounts but the employees and the individuals who live in Michigan that are employed by the automakers and all the uncertainty that has gone on in the region has led to the demand reductions. We are trimming a little bit of Detroit as we are trimming all parts of the network as part of the overall 6% to 8% capacity reduction. We’re also adding some additional flying in Detroit and we are committed two big international launches this year, one being Rome and one being Shanghai out of Detroit. Detroit as a market place, Michigan is an important economy for us but the Detroit facility serves many more people than just the local Detroit market place.

Richard H. Anderson

Management

I would add one other point there which is when you look at our targeted 6% to 8% capacity reduction, it is pretty much at this point ratably across the whole network. There’s not any sort of particular region that is necessarily singled out more than any other region because it is a network and it’s all interwoven. Mary [inaudible] – Detroit Free Press: How crucial is the Detroit market or the Michigan market to that Detroit facility? Because, you have so much other traffic going through there is it really that important? GG It is important but the current challenges the automotive industry is experiencing we’re confident they’ll get themselves sorted out over the next couple of years and we’re going to stand by the local Michigan and Detroit market place with a wonderful facility. So no, it doesn’t back down our commitment or investment in that facility.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from Andy Compart – Aviation Daily. Andy Compart – Aviation Daily: I wanted to ask a little bit more about Atlanta airport and what’s going on there, it’s been well publicized. You talk about still working with the mayor to get the international terminal done but the cost estimate on that has doubled, are you concerned about the cost there? I also wanted to ask what changes would you like to see to lower the cost of that terminal and what costs you think are really realistic for that? Then I have a follow up.

Richard H. Anderson

Management

The efforts that we have underway with the mayor and the Department of Airports have been very constructive and we have a team working together to reduce the cost of the facility and to get the financing pieces of the facility correct. It’s an important investment for the airport because it opens up an easterly entrance to the Hartsfield Airport, today the airport is fed principally from the west side in terms of terminal facilities in the head house. So, this is important not only as an international terminal but important in terms of opening the east side of the airport for passenger ingress and egress for both the domestic and international flights. So, the teams are working closely together to see what we can do to reduce the costs and the mayor has been directly involved and I’m pretty confident that we’re probably going to be able to get the cost down significantly from where they are today. Andy Compart – Aviation Daily: Given the level of the concern that you’ve had with some of the costs there that you’ve expressed, are you confident in the current leadership of the airport to continue doing that or would you like to see some changes in who’s running the operation.

Richard H. Anderson

Management

Oh no, no, no, not at all. Our management team there, our distinguished airport management, they’ve been long time partners and we have every confidence in the city of Atlanta and the partnership that we’ve had here for 70 years.

John E. Walker

Analyst

Thank you very much Richard, Ed, Glen, Hank. We appreciate everyone joining us for the year end and fourth quarter December results. We’ll go ahead and be back with you in April for the first quarter results. Thank you all very much.

Operator

Operator

That does conclude today’s conference. We want to thank you again for your participation. You may now disconnect.