Delta lays out Fund the Flight plan during investor day; exchange listing expected in early May

By Lisa Kerner

Charlotte, N.C., March 27 - Delta Air Lines chief financial officer Ed Bastian outlined the company's plan to emerge from bankruptcy at the end of April during the company's investor day conference.

Bastian said that throughout the restructuring process, Delta has remained focused on delivering on is commitments.

"You don't improve the profitability of this company by $2 billion on a year-over-year basis without taking on a higher level of risk, of change, of fairly dramatic impact in short order if you're not focused truly on changing the model," Bastian remarked.

Delta expects to emerge from bankruptcy on April 30 and to have its stock listed again during the first week of May. The exact stock exchange for the listing will be announced in a few weeks.

He believes that Delta will emerge from bankruptcy as one of the strongest carriers in terms of balance sheet and cash flow.

"Over the next three years, we are going to throw off $5 billion of cash flow," said Bastian.

The company is close to meeting the three objectives as part of its transformation plan. Delta closed the RASM gap from 85% to 93% and expects to close it completely by 2008. To repair the balance sheet, Delta has reduced net debt to $7.6 billion, from $17 billion. In addition, the company has slashed $2 billion from its "best-in-class" costs which includes increased productivity.

Delta's plan also allows for reinvestment of $6 billion from operations.

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