Delta Air Lines today announced that it has contributed $350 million in shares of its common stock to its pension plans.  This is in addition to the $825 million in cash contributions the company has already made to the plans this year.

To accomplish this contribution, the company issued 7.85 million shares from treasury.  To avoid diluting existing shareholders with this contribution, the company has entered into a $350 million accelerated share repurchase agreement.  The ASR is part of Delta's existing $5 billion share repurchase authorization and is in addition to the company's previous guidance of $425 million of share repurchases for the March quarter under this authorization.