MANILA – A Boeing 747 series 400 plane of Delta Airlines bound for New York via Narita was cancelled Friday due to engine problem.

Delta Air flight DL 172 with more than 300 passengers was supposed to depart around 7:40 a.m. from the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 1.

It was initially delayed for over 45 minutes after the pilot and ground personnel heard a loud sound emanating from the first engine from the right wing during the initial safety inspection prior to takeoff.

Dante Basanta, NAIA Terminal 1 manager, confirmed to ABS-CBN that the Delta Airlines flight was declared cancelled when a titanium object believed to be also part of the plane was found inside the engine haul.

Some of the affected passengers were transferred to another flight while some were billeted to a hotel while waiting for the resumption of their flight.

The damaged plane was towed at remote parking 24 from terminal bay 10 after the passengers disembarked and their luggage offloaded from the plane. — By Raoul Esperas

Wednesday, May 7

Plan that special day at Decor 2014, an international conference for wedding planners that begins today and ends tomorrow at the A2 Club on the Petrograd Side. Registration begins at 9:30 a.m. with the event opening at 11 a.m.

Industry specialists will be on hand to give advice on how to create not only a memorable day for the bride and groom, but also an unforgettable experience for all in attendance.

Thursday, May 8

Jazz lovers get their chance to enjoy local and international ensembles during the international jazz festival 1Jazz.ru today at the Jazz Philharmonic Hall.

The music starts playing at 5 p.m. and tickets start from 200 rubles ($5.60) and can be purchased online or at the venue.

Friday, May 9

Celebrate Victory Day by reliving that moment in history when it was announced the war was over at the National Library of Russia’s “Spring 1945” fashion show.

The event will showcase outfits, recreated by fashion historian Megan Virtanen, showing the Soviet style after nearly four years fighting the bloodiest war in human history.

Saturday, May 10

The International Martial Arts Confederation East-West Open continues today and tomorrow and features combat in multiple disciplines between some of Russia and the CIS’ most talented fighters.

Sunday, May 11

Zenit St. Petersburg play their final home game of the 2013-14 season today against rivals Dynamo Moscow this afternoon at 1:30 p.m. at Petrovsky Stadium on the Petrograd Side.

Tickets are still available for purchase through the team’s official website, at the stadium box office or in any of their merchandise stores found throughout the city.

Monday, May 12

One of Russia’s most famous bands in both the Soviet Union and after its collapse, Akvarium will be rocking out this evening at the A2 club on the Petrograd Side tonight at 8 p.m.

Tickets are still available but are pricey, starting at 1,200 rubles ($33.60) and costing upwards of 5,000 rubles ($140).

Check out the final day of the military poster exhibition “We’re There,” giving St. Petersburg residents a chance to relive the propaganda utilized by the Soviet Union to inspire its people to take up arms against the German invasion.

Tuesday, May 13

Today is the final day to catch a glimpse of the Easter Gifts of the Imperial Family exhibit at the Peter and Paul Fortress.

The gifts exude the opulence of the tsarist era and are an enlightening look into the untold wealth of the former rulers of Russia. Tickets to the exhibit are 150 rubles ($4.20).

ATLANTA (CBS46) –

Delta Airlines hosted a unique function during its week of fundraising events for cancer research: a jet pull. Teams of Delta employees from around the world took turns, competing to pull a Boeing 757 jet 20 feet in the fastest time.

The fundraising event was held at Hartsfield-Jackson Airport on Friday morning, one of 100 events the airline had planned for the week in partnership with the American Cancer Society. The airline expected to raise $1.3 million to benefit cancer research.

“We’re committed to the fight against cancer, and we like to have fun doing it,” said Delta’s Chief Operating Officer, Gil West. “This is a great event for us, the competition is good. There’s also something about coming together to fight cancer as a whole.”

Seventy-two teams of Delta employees from around the world competed in the jet pull at Hartsfield-Jackson Airport Friday morning. Each team was required to raise $1,000, for cancer research, prior to participating.

Copyright 2014 WGCL-TV (Meredith Corporation). All rights reserved.

Delta Airlines President Ed Bastian, left, speaks to students at Peachtree Ridge High School on Friday morning during a ceremony to open an entrepreneurship club called the Lighthouse project. Sean Murphy, right, a local businessman, helped launch the club. (Staff Photo: Keith Farner)

Delta Airlines President Ed Bastian, top right, speaks to students at Peachtree Ridge High School on Friday morning during a ceremony to open an entrepreneurship club called the Lighthouse project. Sean Murphy, bottom right, a local businessman, helped launch the club. (Staff Photo: Keith Farner)

Delta Airlines President Ed Bastian, bottom left, speaks to students at Peachtree Ridge High School on Friday morning during a ceremony to open an entrepreneurship club called the Lighthouse project. Sean Murphy, top left, a local businessman, helped launch the club. (Staff Photo: Keith Farner)

Sean Murphy, a local businessman, who helped launch the Lighthouse project at Peachtree Ridge High School, speaks at a grand opening ceremony on Friday morning. The club is designed to help students learn how to be entrepreneurs and start small businesses. (Staff Photo: Keith Farner)

SUWANEE — Demetri Lyons wants to follow in his mother’s footsteps and start his own business.

The Peachtree Ridge High junior said he has dreams to open a retail clothing store. He’s not alone.

At least 100 Peachtree Ridge students have signed up to join the Lighthouse project, which has been organized by local businessman Sean Murphy. The club, which is expected to meet during school and after school beginning in August, will be student-driven and generate ideas to start and run small businesses. The profits from those businesses will be donated to the Gwinnett County Public Schools Foundation, and to start future small businesses, Murphy said.

“So far, all my friends that I’ve talked to want to join,” Lyons said. “Because everybody has something that they want to do, and a lot of people want to jump at the opportunity to start their own business. Because if you have a talent, you can always profit off of it.”

The project was unveiled at a ceremony near the Peachtree Ridge baseball field on Friday morning. The featured speaker was Delta Airlines President Ed Bastian, one of Murphy’s friends and neighbors. During a question and answer discussion with Peachtree Ridge students, Murphy and Bastian shared stories about how they got started in business and their keys to success.

“The world works for people who want to be successful,” Bastian said. “This is a great vehicle and introduction to that.”

Murphy was motivated to start in business after he was a sophomore in college and a tuition check from his father bounced, and he later learned his parents were behind on their mortgage. He said his success in business allowed him to pay off his parents’ mortgage, and he encouraged the students to make choices that makes themselves and their parents proud.

Bastian grew up in a home where his father had his own dental practice, and his mother was the assistant. His first two jobs were working road construction and in a rock quarry. While he respected the people in those jobs, he realized that wasn’t the kind of work he wanted to do for the rest of his life.

So he earned a degree in finance, and encouraged the students to pursue accounting degrees because accounting is the language of business. Bastian also said to surround yourself with the right people.

“I don’t know how to fly a plane, and I don’t know how to fix a plane,” he said. “I can serve Cokes on a plane, but there’s a limit to what I can do. I prefer to hire people that are smarter than me, because they make me look good.”

Murphy said the students will learn in reverse from what they’re used to, and he explained it with the acronym “DCBA,” which stands for Dream Calculate Believe and Act. The project is in two trailers outside the school building because Murphy wants the students to be creative, and not constrained by teacher requirements.

Murphy plans to spend two hours a day twice a week at the Lighthouse.

He also wants help from the Gwinnett businesses of all types and sizes.

“We have a top 10 school system in the country,” Murphy said. “The business community needs to step up. I really want to challenge the Gwinnett County business community to help.”

There are also plans to start a similar club at North Gwinnett High, and other Gwinnett high schools.

Lyons said the Lighthouse would help him start on his path to owning his own business earlier than his mother, who started her own catering business at 40.

“Now that everybody’s competitive, it’s always good to get a head start,” he said. “To start early, I feel like with the Lighthouse, I can get myself out there in the business world early, so I can get more competitive and accomplish my dreams.”

Within a year of enhancing its shareholders’ return, Delta Airlines Inc. (DAL) has again hiked its dividend and has authorized a new share repurchase program to gain investors’ confidence. The news pushed the stock higher by 0.4% on Tuesday trade on NYSE.

The airline giant’s board of directors has approved a $2 billion share buyback program that is expected to complete in 2016, in addition to raising its 6 cents quarterly dividend by 50% to 9 cents per share effective from the third quarter of 2014. The carrier plans to return $2.75 billion to shareholders by the end of 2016. Delta had 853 million outstanding shares at the end of Mar 31, 2014.

Delta returned $176 million to its shareholders in the first quarter of 2014 through its dividend and share repurchase activity. The company has sufficient cash to carry out this new program and exited the first quarter with $3.7 billion in cash and short-term investments and $390.0 million in free cash flow.

This latest bid to enhance shareholders’ return depicts Delta’s confidence in continuing its sturdy financial performance, already reflected in the impressive first-quarter results. Despite a harsh winter forcing Delta to cancel 17,000 flights, the carrier managed to beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate on both the top and bottom line in the recently declared first-quarter results.

In May 2013, Delta recommenced its quarterly dividend after a gap of 10 years along with the initiation of a $500 million share repurchase program. The Atlanta-based carrier is on course to return $700 million to its shareholders including the $500 million buyback through June 2014, and is poised two years ahead of its schedule.   

Delta is miles ahead of the big airline companies in terms of dividend payment with Southwest Airlines Co. (LUV) coming in at a close second with a quarterly dividend of 4 cents. Apart from these two carriers, peers like United Continental Holdings Inc. (UAL) and JetBlue Airways Corp. (JBLU) do not pay dividends at present.

For us, the increased shareholders’ return does not come as a surprise. The company has managed to beat the Zacks estimates in the past four quarters and have even managed to regain its position among the SP 500 within this time. Delta has even strengthened its balance sheet by reducing its debt by $2.6 billion since the end of 2012. The carrier also expects to have only $5 billion in adjusted net debt by the end of 2016.

Delta has been leveraging from an improving U.S. economy, which in turn is propelling stronger demand within the domestic market. We believe capacity discipline, route expansion, cost control measures and customer-focused initiatives are boosting its performance along with its trans-Atlantic tie up with Virgin Atlantic, which is picking up well in the lucrative New York-London travel route. We thus remain bullish on Delta with a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).

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ATLANTA (TheStreet) — Delta (DAL), leading an effort to make airlines investment worthy, said it will boost its dividend 50% and buy back $2 billion worth of its shares.

“We are setting a new standard at Delta, building a company that is producing strong improvements to earnings and cash flow, while also investing billions of dollars in our people, fleet and products and strengthening our balance sheet,” said CEO Richard Anderson in a prepared statement.

The goal, he said, is “becoming a consistently high-performing SP 500 company.”

In premarket trading shortly before the opening bell, Delta shares were up 70 cent to $38.25.

Delta’s board approved increasing the quarterly dividend to 9 cents a share from 6 cents a share and also repurchasing $2 billion worth of stock by Dec. 31, 2016, the carrier announced during an investor presentation Tuesday morning.

Combined, the two programs are expected to return $2.75 billion to shareholders through 2016.

Delta said it has exceeded financial targets it announced in May 2013.

The carrier ended the first quarter with $9.1 billion of adjusted net debt, down $2.6 billion since the end of 2012 and down nearly $8 billion since 2009. Adjusted net debt is expected to fall to $7 billion in 2015, two years ahead of the target date. Further reduction to $5 billion is expected by the end of 2016.

Delta is on track to return $700 million to shareholders by early June, through $200 million of dividends and completion of its original $500 million share repurchase authorization more than two years ahead of its June 30, 2016, expiration date.

Additionally, Delta contributed nearly $1 billion to its defined benefit pension plan for 2013 and 2014. This pension funding, combined with higher interest rates and returns on pension assets, helped lower the company’s unfunded pension liability by 25% to just over $10 billion. The company plans to maintain its current $1 billion annual funding level through 2020, with a goal of achieving 80% funded status by that date.

Delta had approximately 853 million shares of common stock outstanding as of March 31, 2014.

Written by Ted Reed in Charlotte, N.C.

To contact this writer, click here.

Follow @tedreednc

Disclosure: TheStreet’s editorial policy prohibits staff editors, reporters and analysts from holding positions in any individual stocks.

CREATED 10:24 AM

A Delta Airlines regional jet made a safe emergency landing at the Springfield-Branson National Airport after some problems with a wing flap.

The 50-seat jet took off from Springfield before 10 a.m.

It circled the airport for almost 40 minutes, burning off fuel before landing.

Airport spokesman Kent Boyd says the plane finally landed around 10:35 a.m.

Avoca, Luzerne County- Some big changes are coming to the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport.
    Delta Airlines announced that it will resume its large-jet service at the airport for the first time in nearly 17 years.    The Delta Flight will leave Avoca and head to Atlanta at 6:30 a-m and will return after 11 each night.

Severe winter weather cost Delta Airlines $90 million in lost revenue. That didn’t stop the airline from delivering better than anticipated earnings results.

The airline reported $8.9 billion in operating revenue for the quarter, up 5% from the same period last year. Net income came in at $281 million, this was $196 million greater than net income during the same period last year despite $163 million in non-cash tax expenses and revenue lost from the more than 17,000 Delta canceled due to severe winter weather in the firs two months of the quarter.  Net income was also well ahead of Wall Street analysts’ $243 million consensus estimate. Earning per share were 25 cents, 2 cents behind the analyst estimate. Excluding special items, however, earnings per share were 33 cents, 4 cents ahead of the Street.

Passenger revenue per available seat mile was up 3% from the same period last year to 14.24 cents, as revenue passenger miles were up 4% to 44.6 billion. These industry metrics respectively measure capacity to revenue and number of paying-passengers by aircraft distance traveled.

“The March quarter’s record results in the face of unprecedented weather show the strength and resilience of Delta,”said CEO Richard Anderson. “Our work is not finished, and there is great opportunity ahead as we expect the June quarter to produce 14% – 16% operating margins. We are transforming Delta into a high-quality SP 500 company that consistently delivers strong earnings growth and shareholder returns.” Delta rejoined the SP 500 in September 2013.

Delta Air Lines Delta Air Lines shares hit a new 52-week high of $37.41 in Wednesday morning trading. Delta shares are up more than 26% so far this year after gaining 125% in 2013. The stock jumped above $30 for the first time in early January of this year after the company announced it would be updating the interiors of several aircraft lines. The stock has not closed below $29.38 since.

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