contractual obligations as of December 31, 2009. The table does not include commitments that are contingent on events or other factors that are uncertain or unknown at this time, some of which are discussed in footnotes to this table and in the text immediately following the footnotes. Results that vary significantly from our assumptions could have a material impact on our contractual obligations.

      Pension Obligations. We sponsor a defined benefit pension plan for eligible non-pilot Delta employees and retirees (the “Delta Non-Pilot Plan”) and defined benefit pension plans for eligible Northwest employees and retirees (the “Northwest Pension Plans”), all of which have been frozen for future benefit accruals. Our funding obligations for these plans are governed by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.

     The Pension Protection Act of 2006 allows commercial airlines to elect alternative funding rules (“Alternative Funding Rules”) for defined benefit plans that are frozen. Under the Alternative Funding Rules, the unfunded liability for a frozen defined benefit plan may be funded over a fixed 17-year period. The unfunded liability is defined as the actuarial liability and is calculated using an 8.85% interest rate. Delta elected the Alternative Funding Rules for the Delta Non-Pilot Plan, effective April 1, 2007; and Northwest elected the Alternative Funding Rules for the Northwest Pension Plans, effective October 1, 2006. We estimate that the funding requirements under these plans will be approximately $720 million in 2010.

     While this legislation makes our funding obligations for these plans more predictable, factors outside our control continue to have an impact on the funding requirements. Estimates of future funding requirements are based on various assumptions and can vary materially from actual funding requirements. Assumptions include, among other things, the actual and projected market performance of assets; statutory requirements; and demographic data for participants.

     The following items are not included in the table above:

      Contract Carrier Agreements . During the year ended December 31, 2009, six regional air carriers (“Contract Carriers”) operated for us (in addition to our wholly-owned subsidiaries, Comair, Compass Airlines, Inc. (“Compass”) and Mesaba Aviation, Inc. (“Mesaba”)) pursuant to capacity purchase agreements. Under these agreements, the regional air carriers operate some or all of their aircraft using our flight designator codes, and we control the scheduling, pricing, reservations, ticketing and seat inventories of those aircraft and retain the revenues associated with those flights. We pay those airlines an amount, as defined in the applicable agreement, which is based on a determination of their cost of operating those flights and other factors intended to approximate market rates for those services.

     The above table shows our minimum fixed obligations under these capacity purchase agreements (excluding Comair, Compass and Mesaba). The obligations set forth in the table contemplate minimum levels of flying by the Contract Carriers under the respective agreements and also reflect