Delta To Avoid Furloughs For Most Employees

Delta Air Lines says it will spare most of its 75,000 employees from furloughs this year, thanks to workers who took early retirement or voluntary leaves of absence. 

But Delta still plans to furlough more than 1,900 pilots starting as early as next month. The company has kept workers employed after taking $25 billion in government stimulus money, but that runs out at the end of September.

Delta's CEO said it will continue to cut work hours and executive pay, and that it still supports more government aid to help protect airline jobs. But flight attendants, mechanics and customer service agents won't face involuntary furloughs. 

Southwest Airlines also said it was able to avoid job cuts thanks to buyout packages and early retirements. However, American Airlines and United Airlines said they could furlough up to 35,000 employees by the end of the year.