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Delta closes $2.1 billion of financing transactions

Direct News Source

28-Sep-2009 Delta Air Lines (NYSE: DAL) today announced it has closed $2.1 billion of financing transactions, marking a significant step toward addressing the company's 2010 debt maturities and further strengthening its liquidity position.

"The competitive terms and strong demand for this financing reflect the market's confidence in Delta and our financial strength," said Ed Bastian, Delta's president. "With these transactions, we've addressed more than 40 percent of our 2010 maturities and generated an incremental $600 million to bolster our best-in-class liquidity position."

The $2.1 billion transaction will generate $600 million in incremental liquidity after refinancing $1.5 billion from Northwest's bank credit and revolving credit facilities. Delta now expects its unrestricted liquidity at Sept. 30, 2009 to be $5.6 billion. The total transaction has an effective yield of 9.2 percent.

Bastian continued, "We'd like to thank our banks - Barclays Capital, Citibank, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley and UBS Investment Bank - for their partnership and commitment to helping Delta secure our capital needs."

The new financing transactions are secured by liens against Delta's Pacific franchise, which includes route authorities, slots and gate leaseholds.