Delta's chief financial officer, Michele Burns, has left, becoming the third major Delta executive to leave this year in a brain drain that began late last year when former chief executive Leo Mullin announced an early retirement.
Burns, who was recruited in 1999 by Mullin, will become the chief fiscal officer for Atlanta's Mirant Corporation, which owns powerplants.
The news came just weeks after president and chief operating officer Fred Reid left Delta to join Virgin USA, the soon-to-be-launched low-cost airline, and a week after the retirement of Terry Erskine, a key negotiator for Delta labour. Reid resigned just months after new Delta chief executive Gerald Grinstein replaced Mullin.
Although Burns, 49, has not been directly involved in Delta's labour talks, she was an architect of its cost-cutting efforts. Delta's operating expenses fell almost 11% year-on-year in the 2003 fourth quarter, according to Merrill Lynch analyst Mike Linenberg.
Grinstein said that he had no plans to replace Reid, explaining: "I will say that in terms of the future, I don't plan to appoint another president and may not even appoint in exactly the same way a chief operating officer." He said Delta will replace Burns.
CSFB analyst Jim Higgins says the departure of Burns "probably says more about the state of the airline industry than about struggling Delta, but we nonetheless view it as a blow".
DAVID FIELD WASHINGTON
Source: Airline Business
