President Trump is posting on social media to do a victory lap for some changes that Delta has recently implemented internally…
Delta revises pilot manual in Trump-friendly way
Trump took to his Truth Social platform to share a message that he claims is from a Delta captain. First of all, is Trump just randomly messaging with a Delta captain, or…? Anyway, the entire social media post reads as follows:
From a Delta Captain: “I thought you would get a kick out of this. Delta’s official memo to employees. Big changes Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of America. And the liberals thought Notice to Airman was racist to they changed it to Notice to Air Missions. Delta just changed it back to Notice to Airman. I think they are finally embracing MAGA.”
Trump then shared the below picture, which shows revisions that Delta has made to its manual for pilots. There are two key changes:
- Internally, the airline has changed mentions of “Gulf of Mexico” to “Gulf of America”
- Internally, the airline has changed how it refers to NOTAMs, from “notice to air missions,” to “notice to airmen”
For context, at the beginning of his term, Trump issued an executive order renaming the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America, but as you’d expect, that hasn’t necessarily been universally embraced. Regarding the second point, NOTAMs are alerts for pilots. Initially they stood for “notice to airmen,” and then in 2021 they were updated to be “notice to air missions,” to be more inclusive.
Or I guess as the Delta pilot views it, “liberals thought Notice to Airman was racist to they changed it to Notice to Air Missions.” That’s an interesting perspective of what entails racism, eh?
Delta says it’s just following FAA mandates
While Trump is doing a victory lap and seemingly thinking that Delta is becoming more MAGA friendly, Delta has a different take, with a spokesperson stating that “those changes were mandated by the FAA.” Make of that what you will…
From a competitive standpoint, we know that Delta and United are of course competing fiercely, as United narrows the gap on Delta when it comes to profitability. United CEO Scott Kirby has (presumably strategically) had nothing but positive things to say about Trump, so competitively, I could see how Delta might feel like it needs to catch up. 😉
Bottom line
President Trump is recognizing Delta for now using the terms Gulf of America and notice to airmen, rather than Gulf of Mexico and notice to air missions. A Delta pilot shared this with him, though Delta claims that it’s just following changes mandated by the FAA.
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