HOUSTON – It was a sweet Valentine’s Day for employees of Continental and United airlines.
United CEO Jeff Smisek made a guest appearance at Bush Intercontinental Airport Monday to hand out money.
United Continental’s 87,000 employees are splitting about $224 million as part of the company’s profit-sharing program.
Elsewhere, Delta employees were also getting payouts.
Their 80,000 employees were splitting $313 million.
For many airlines, this year was the first since 2007 that they were in the black.
Revenues were up almost 19 percent for United Continental and 13 percent for Delta.
US Airways said last month its full-year profit resulted in profit-sharing bonuses of $47 million for its employees.
Some airline employees also get bonuses for certain performance metrics — if the company runs a certain percentage of its flights on time, for example.
