Delta Air Lines cancelled its discounts to members of the National Rifle Association in February after a shooting in a Florida school that killed 17 teachers and students, one of the deadliest school massacres in the US.
Edward Bastian, chief executive, was acting on a sense of moral conviction over a matter unrelated to Delta’s core business, says Aaron Chatterji of Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. Prof Chatterji studies what he calls “CEO activism” and he believes it to be on the rise. In Delta’s case, speaking out had consequences: pushback from lawmakers.
A few days after the Delta statement, legislators in the airline’s home state of Georgia responded by scrapping a planned jet-fuel tax break. Casey Cagle, the state’s deputy governor, commented on Twitter: “Corporations cannot attack conservatives and expect us not to fight back.”