As safety incidents, technology failures, and labor unrest continue to shake the nation’s airline industry, calls are increasing for Congress to investigate airline CEO compensation — particularly when massive executive pay comes amid tumbling performance.
Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian, who took home $34.2 million in 2023 — the highest CEO salary in the industry that year — is drawing scrutiny as his airline grapples with a series of safety and service-related issues that have damaged the company’s value.
In just the first quarter of 2025, Delta’s shareholder value plummeted by 39 percent, despite Bastian’s January claim that the airline was poised for “the best financial year in Delta’s 100-year history.”
Fast forward to spring, and that prediction has aged poorly.
Bastian’s leadership now faces pointed criticism in the wake of numerous recent incidents. Most notably, in February, a Delta-operated CRJ900 flipped upside down during an emergency landing in Toronto amid a snowstorm, sparking a fiery explosion after 6,000 pounds of jet fuel spilled from a ruptured wing.
All 80 passengers and the crew survived with 21 people injured, and the crash raised questions about Delta’s safety protocols.
The Toronto crash is just one of several recent emergencies linked to Delta flights:
- A March flight to New Orleans returned to Boston after a smoky odor was detected in the cabin.
- A February flight to Hawaii turned back to Salt Lake City due to engine failure.
- That same month, two separate Delta flights — one from Atlanta and one from Los Angeles — were forced to land after reports of smoke in the cockpit and cabin.
- In January, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) launched an investigation into a near-collision between Delta and United flights over Phoenix.
- In March and April, several other incidents were reported by AeroInside, including an engine shutdown in flight, a hydraulic leak, in-cabin fumes, and cabin pressure problems, among others.
Beyond safety, Delta’s strained operations and workforce relationships are further signs of dysfunction, according to reports.
For instance, Delta’s flight attendants, represented by the Association of Flight Attendants, sounded alarms in 2024 about understaffing and scheduling issues following a cyber incident. At one point, Delta reportedly had just 53 schedulers for 28,000 flight attendants — far fewer than its peers, United and American Airlines.
Delta pilots also have raised red flags for years about burnout, subpar IT infrastructure, and outsourcing concerns, while Delta’s chapter of the Air Line Pilots Association continues to push back on what it calls unacceptable labor practices.
Meanwhile, other airlines have not been immune to leadership shakeups. Spirit Airlines’ CEO stepped down amid bankruptcy. At Southwest, Chairman Gary Kelly was ousted following pressure from activist investors. American Airlines, too, has faced leadership churn tied to operational failures.
But at Delta, Bastian remains in control despite the airline’s safety issues, and his compensation package reportedly isn’t tied to any safety metrics, according to sources.
“Companies with the highest paid CEOs in the industry run the risk of drawing scrutiny from financial and non-financial activists when business challenges and performance issues arise,” Lawrence Elbaum, a partner at Vinson & Elkins LLP and an expert in corporate governance, told Transportation Today. “This is doubly true in highly regulated and unionized industries.
“This is where well-advised public company boards can step in after a thorough examination of these realities to realign executive compensation programs to align pay with performance triggers that satisfy all stakeholders.” said Elbaum.
In 2024, CEO turnover hit a record high across public companies, with 373 executives leaving their roles. Yet in the airline industry — one of the most troubled sectors — CEOs like Bastian have weathered the storm.
Lawmakers are being urged to take a closer look, with activists, labor unions, and safety advocates calling for congressional hearings to determine whether executive pay is out of sync with safety performance — and to explore policy solutions.
“This is a game of Russian Roulette every time you step on a plane,” said Karlene Petitt, a retired Delta captain and aviation safety expert. “Unless airline executives are held accountable for passenger safety, nothing will change.”
Petitt, who spent decades flying for Delta, filed a federal whistleblower lawsuit on Monday, alleging the airline retaliated against her for raising safety concerns in the wake of Delta’s recent plane crash in Toronto.
She claims Delta threatened her with a frivolous defamation suit just days after she submitted a formal safety complaint to Delta and the FAA identifying subpar pilot training as a key factor in the crash.
“This was not an ‘if,’ but a ‘when,’” Petitt wrote in her complaint, asserting that inadequate training led to the pilots’ failure to execute a safe landing.
In her lawsuit, Petitt is seeking compensatory damages and has asked the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration to preserve key evidence, including the cockpit voice recorder and pilot training records, from the Endeavor crash in Toronto.
Opinions remain divided on how far the federal government should go — especially when it comes to reining in airline executive pay.
Charles Elson, founding director of the Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance, said it shouldn’t be the government’s job to get involved in regulating an airline CEO’s pay package based on safety. That’s the job of the company’s board and shareholders, he said during an interview earlier this week.
“Your job is to run a safe, profitable airline. If you can’t, someone else should,” said Elson. “It’s not necessarily a “salary issue;” it’s a performance issue — and it’s up to the board and shareholders to make that call.”
Still, others argue that corporate boards have failed to hold executives accountable — and it’s time for the federal government to intervene.
“The best solution for Congress is to open the door to personal liability of all executives, in that anyone harmed can personally sue the executives in addition to the airline,” Petitt suggested. “With personal liability, executives may focus more on mitigating their personal risk. As it is now, they are increasing passenger risk for their profit, despite the law saying they should reduce it.”