Delta Air Lines Inc. will do whatever necessary to achieve the remaining $1 billion of its targeted cost cuts and tough decisions may have to be made, Chief Executive Gerald Grinstein said Thursday.
“There is no area that will be safe from scrutiny,” Grinstein told shareholders at the struggling carrier’s annual meeting.
Grinstein said the nation’s third-largest airline is on target to achieve a total of $5 billion in annual cost savings by the end of 2006, though he did not specify what it will do to reach that goal.
The Atlanta-based company’s meeting included a passionate speech from the head of its pilots’ union about the sacrifices pilots made to save the company from bankruptcy last fall, a threat Delta again faces just seven months later.
Three company proposals were approved at the meeting while six shareholder proposals were rejected.
More than 100 pilots with Delta subsidiary Atlantic Southeast Airlines picketed outside the convention center where the meeting was held. They are unhappy about the failure to get a new contract with Delta.