Don’t anticipate to identify Delta Air Strains CEO Ed Bastian lingering on the entrance of the boarding line—he’s normally nowhere close to it.
“I’m horrible,” Bastian admitted throughout an offstage interview final week on the Fortune International Discussion board in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. “I’m one of many final individuals to get on board the flight, and our workforce’s all the time dashing to be sure that I’m there as a result of planes won’t look forward to me.”
Bastian, 68, has spent practically a decade on the helm of America’s most worthwhile airline, steering the Fortune 500 big by way of crises from 9/11 and chapter to the COVID-19 pandemic. After becoming a member of Delta in 1998, Bastian rose by way of six management roles earlier than changing into CEO in 2016, however didn’t observe the entire recommendation he obtained for easy methods to be the highest boss.
“The worst recommendation I ever obtained was [from] a former mentor who informed me after I grew to become CEO, I wanted to create a novel identification, one thing that individuals couldn’t discover me,” Bastian mentioned. “He informed me I’ll by no means have a second of peace as a result of I used to be too public.”
Bastian listened, however selected to not comply with the advice: “I thanked him for that, and I didn’t try this.”
Now, Bastian says his inbox is flooded with 1000’s of emails per day, and he typically spends flights studying by way of buyer suggestions. He likens himself to a “level guard” directing visitors to resolve points.
“I solely have one electronic mail, solely have one telephone, and on account of that, I’m all the time in contact with our individuals, our prospects, our group,” he mentioned. Nonetheless, prospects typically don’t consider they’re really speaking with the actual Bastian himself.
“They’ll assume I’m some form of fancy bot, and so they’ll reply, ‘Wow, you’ve obtained an excellent agentic gadget there,’” he joked. “I say, ‘No, it’s me. I’m bored on a Saturday afternoon, simply clearing out my inbox.’”
Even in particular person, Delta passengers are sometimes shocked to see the chief govt seated in economic system, eagerly awaiting Biscoff cookies and a Coke Zero from the snack cart.
“Many occasions after I journey, I’m sitting in coach,” Bastian mentioned. “It’s all the time fascinating as a result of prospects come again and say, ‘Why are you again right here?’ And I say, ‘That’s about what my ticket might afford,’ and [I’m] normally subsequent to the restroom.” To make certain, Bastian’s present compensation bundle is about $27 million, however airline executives do generally must journey coach when premium seats are offered out.
Delta’s people-first technique
Recent off a powerful third-quarter earnings launch with $15.2 billion in report September income, Bastian informed Fortune Editor-in-Chief Alyson Shontell on stage Delta’s success hinges not on planes or expertise, however on its individuals.
“In our enterprise, everybody focuses on the airline, the plane, the expertise, the airports, the superb locations we get to,” he mentioned. “But it surely’s the employees that convey it to life.”.
After asserting the Atlanta-based provider’s first-ever direct flights between the U.S. and Riyadh alongside Riyadh Air CEO Tony Douglas, Bastian added he “obsesses” over his 100,000 staff “in order that they’ll then go do the superb work that our prospects deserve.”
“In case your individuals don’t really feel that love and respect and care, they’re by no means going to have the ability to provide the service that you simply anticipate,” Bastian mentioned.
The technique has paid off: Delta ranks No. 15 on the Fortune 100 Greatest Firms to Work For, and No. 70 on this 12 months’s Fortune 500 record as essentially the most worthwhile U.S. airline, forward of friends like American, United, and Southwest.
However Bastian’s people-first method extends past philosophy. Lengthy earlier than he grew to become CEO, the previous chief monetary officer helped design one among company America’s most beneficiant profit-sharing packages in 2007. After rising from a 19-month chapter, Delta pledged to distribute billions of {dollars} in bonuses again to its workforce for yearly that it hit its targets. In 2024, the worker share totaled $1.4 billion, amounting to round 10% of base pay.
“Rewarding our individuals is prime to who we’re at Delta,” Bastian wrote in a February assertion asserting the payouts. “It’s all the time my No. 1 precedence to care for the Delta workforce.”
Stuart Isett for Fortune
Delta CEO’s management recommendation
Offstage on the Fortune International Discussion board, Bastian, the longest-serving chief govt amongst main U.S. airways, additionally mirrored on his profession journey and provided recommendation for the subsequent era of leaders: “Management isn’t a recognition contest.”
“All of us wish to be appreciated, all of us wish to be beloved,” he mentioned. “However management entails additionally making exhausting decisions, exhausting choices with quite a lot of respect and confidence.”
Earlier this 12 months, Bastian confirmed to Fortune’s Shawn Tully that Delta’s board has named an inside candidate as his successor, marking the primary time he publicly disclosed this contingency plan, however emphasised he nonetheless has “a variety of years to go,” including, “This isn’t a swan music.”
However of all of the enterprise recommendation he’s obtained through the years, Bastian says his most impactful knowledge got here from his late mom: “She informed us, rising up, you’ve obtained two ears and one mouth, use them accordingly.”
He defined that in enterprise, leaders typically deal with sending messages relatively than listening: “We don’t take sufficient time to study, to hear, to have the ability to be certain that we perceive one another.”
For Bastian, it’s an important ability to kind higher relationships and gasoline private {and professional} progress.
“You study much more,” he mentioned. “That curiosity actually is likely one of the hallmarks, I consider, of my profession.”
