In the mid-late 1990s, I saw in the local newspaper that some senior
Delta captains were being paid approximately up to $500,000 a year, and
that the Delta Board of Directors pays the new CEO Leo Mullin millions
(how many?) and the other top management gets pretty nice pay too, I
perceived that with the de-regulated discounting of a ValueJet,
Southwest, etal, that our Atlanta-based largest employer was actually
skating on thin market insecure ice. And this was when Delta was
supposedly considered solvent/profit-making, which I never believed
since I'm old enough to recall Eastern and the others. Plus I did not
enjoy/get them thar free/reduced passes & fares, and thus frankly
felt... why should I patronize them. Obviously, price trumps, and the
Walmart airlines thus have prevailed. We've actually "driven to
Birmingham & Greenville" airports so as not to have to pay that couple
of hundred bucks more. As it was predicted upon de-regulation circa
late 1970s, things chaotically became...what they are, though I won't
eliminate 9/11 & fuel prices as precipitating the decline of the
greatly respected brand name. C'est la vie, c'est la morte.

http://www.breitbart.com/news/2005/09/22/D8CPAVCG1.html