an additional 30 CRJ-900 aircraft. The aircraft will be delivered in two-class, 76 seat configuration between September 2007 and February 2010. We expect these aircraft will be operated by regional air carriers under contract carrier agreements, and the purchase agreement permits assignment of the aircraft and related support provisions to other carriers. We have available to us long-term, secured financing commitments to fund a substantial portion of the aircraft purchase price for the 30 firm orders. These aircraft order commitments are not included in the table above.

 

Pension Plans. We sponsor qualified defined contribution and defined benefit pension plans for eligible employees and retirees. Our funding obligations for these plans are governed by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (“ERISA”). Estimates of pension plan funding requirements can vary materially from actual funding requirements because the estimates are based on various assumptions, including those described below.

 

Defined Contribution Pension Plans (“DC Plans”). During the year ended December 31, 2006, we contributed approximately $110 million to our DC Plans. Estimates of future funding requirements under our DC Plans are not reasonably estimable at this time.  Under our comprehensive agreement with ALPA reducing our pilot labor costs, ALPA received, among other things, a $2.1 billion allowed general, unsecured pre-petition claim in our bankruptcy proceedings. The proceeds of this claim will be distributed to pilot accounts under the Delta Family-Care Savings Plan to the extent permitted by the Internal Revenue Code, thereby reducing the amount we can contribute under the Internal Revenue Code to the DC Plan for pilots in 2007. In addition, we intend to implement changes to our DC Plan for non-pilot employees following our exit from bankruptcy but the design of these plan changes has not yet been finalized.

 

Defined Benefit Pension Plans (“DB Plans”) . During the year ended December 31, 2006, we contributed approximately $4 million to our DB Plans. Under our settlement agreement with the PBGC, the Pilot Plan was terminated effective September 2, 2006, and we agreed to initiate, prior to our emergence from Chapter 11, a standard termination of a separate frozen qualified defined benefit pension plan for certain pilots formerly employed by Western Air Lines. In addition, our non-qualified defined benefit pension plans for pilots were terminated effective September 2, 2006.

 

Effective December 31, 2005, future pay and service accruals under the Non-pilot Plan were frozen. The Pension Preservation Act of 2006 allows us to reduce the funding obligations for the Non-pilot Plan over the next several years. As a result of this legislation, we intend to maintain the Non-pilot Plan. While this legislation makes our funding obligations for the Non-pilot Plan more predictable, factors outside our control will continue to have an impact on the funding requirements for that plan.



Estimates of future funding requirements for the Non-pilot Plan are based on various assumptions, including legislative changes regarding these obligations. These assumptions