Delta Air Lines Settles $8.1M Lawsuit for Misuse of COVID Relief Funds

July 15, 2025 – Delta Air Lines has consented to an $8.1 million settlement to address accusations of misusing funds from the Payroll Support Program (PSP). This program aimed to secure the salaries of aviation employees during the pandemic while restricting the pay of top executives.

The PSP, a pioneering initiative endorsed by the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA) and other industry unions, was established to ensure that government relief directly supported aviation workers. Unlike the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans, where less than 35% of the funds reached the workforce, the PSP successfully directed 100% of its relief to aviation personnel. It also included measures such as a ban on stock buybacks and stringent oversight by the Treasury to ensure compliance.

Sara Nelson, President of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, who played a significant role in the PSP's creation, commented:

“Union leaders and executives came together to negotiate the PSP and push for Congress to pass it, not once, but three times. However, one CEO was absent from Washington – Delta CEO Ed Bastian. We fought tooth and nail for a program that protected the workers who were at risk of losing everything in the pandemic and ensure our airlines could remain intact to meet demand when travel returned. Delta stood alone during that time - using all of the airline’s political capital on one thing: to remove the one provision that would’ve required them to simply follow the law and not interfere with Delta employees’ free and fair right to choose union representation.

“We applaud the whistleblowers who came forward to shine a light on this gross injustice and violation of a law that simply required Delta to use government relief funds to pay their workers and not their executives. The accountability we are seeing today could not have been possible without the career workers and watchdogs at the Department of Treasury, who enforced the PSP, the most successful worker-first relief program in our nation’s history. A key takeaway today is that a thriving, fair economy and democracy depends on unions and government oversight that puts in check corporate greed.

“Delta’s violation of the PSP by exceeding compensation caps for corporate officers simply shows once again why Delta workers are organizing – because they know without a union, there is no accountability, there is no voice for the workers, and the airline executives are driven first and foremost to take profits for themselves and their investors at the expense of workers, passengers and our communities.”

The Association of Flight Attendants is the Flight Attendant union. Focused 100 percent on Flight Attendant issues, AFA has been the leader in advancing the Flight Attendant profession for over 79 years. Serving as the voice for Flight Attendants in the workplace, in the aviation industry, in the media and on Capitol Hill, AFA has transformed the Flight Attendant profession by raising wages, benefits and working conditions. 55,000 Flight Attendants come together to form AFA, part of the 700,000-member strong Communications Workers of America (CWA), AFL-CIO. Visit us at www.afacwa.org.