Consolidation will continue, and that consolidation is both domestically and internationally and it’

Good morning everyone. If you can all take your seats it is time for us to get started. I want to thank everybody car rentals phoenix arizona hybird cars for coming and welcome you to Delta's 2012 Investor Day. For those I haven't had a chance to meet, I'm Jill Greer, Managing Director of Investor Relations for Delta. We have a great day planned so I'm just going to get you a couple of quick housekeeping items before we get going.
For those of you here in New York you should have a copy of the presentation in front of you and for those on the webcast car rentals phoenix arizona hybird cars the slides were filed on the Form 8K just a few minutes car rentals phoenix arizona hybird cars ago and they are also posted on the Investor Relations page at delta.com. We are going to follow a similar format that we have for the last few years where we have presentations, a couple of presenters and then we do a longer car rentals phoenix arizona hybird cars Q A session with groups of presenters. When we get to the Q A for those in the room I would just ask that you wait until the microphone comes to you so that the people on the webcast can hear your question.
After the final Q A we are going to go down to the arcade for lunch and at lunch we will have our annual drawing for some really great gift. Our gift this year are, a model of the flagship of Delta Suite of 747 and also a chance to, an opportunity to experience the best of Delta at the Diamond car rentals phoenix arizona hybird cars Medallion car rentals phoenix arizona hybird cars for a year. So make sure you get a chance to drop your business card in the bowl and you can get a chance to win.
We do have a great team from Delta here with us today. We have Richard Anderson, our CEO; Ed Bastian, our President; Steve Gorman, our Chief Operating Officer; Glen Hauenstein, our EVP of Network, Planning, Revenue Management, Marketing and Alliances; Paul Jacobson, our Chief Financial Officer; Ken Morge, our Treasurer; Gary Chase, our Senior Vice President of Financial Planning and Investor Relations; Gail Grimmett, our Senior Vice President for New York; Holden Shannon, our Senior Vice President for Strategy and Corporate Real Estate; Ned Walker, our Chief Communications Officer and Ben Hirst, our General Counsel.
From the Delta Air Lines Pilots Association we have our incoming MEC Chairman, Captain Kingsley car rentals phoenix arizona hybird cars Roberts and joining him are Captain Doug Ross and Dino Atsalis. We have members of the Delta Board Counsel and then finally, last but not least, we have Amy Martin and [Irena Brume] from our fantastic IR team and given the sound of my voice right now you will probably be hearing a lot more from them later today.
So before we get into the presentations, I do have to tell you that today's presentation does contain forward-looking statements and the risk factors that could cause those results to differ materially from our statements car rentals phoenix arizona hybird cars are included in Delta's SEC filings. We also have non-GAAP financial measures in the presentation today and a reconciliation of those measures is included as an appendix to your presentation car rentals phoenix arizona hybird cars and they are also posted on the Investor Relations page of delta.com.
Well, thanks a lot for being here. You know, we started car rentals phoenix arizona hybird cars doing these in 2007 and we plotted a steady course every December and if you look back over that timeframe, our goal has been to build a long term sustainable car rentals phoenix arizona hybird cars franchise at Delta and if you just gauge our success and our progress, I think you would agree with me that we're well down that path and we'll continue to innovate and make prudent investment to be certain that we're a strong airline for our investors, a really good airline for our customers and a very good place to work for our employees.
So when you think about what that path has been and where the path is headed, we're going to talk a bit about where we've been and then talk quite a lot about where we are headed, because if you think about the industry and the sort of cash flows that we developed and the kinds of sustainable car rentals phoenix arizona hybird cars cash flows we can have, we have to continue to progress both the multiples in the industry and the confidence in our investor base that these cash flows are long-term sustainable cash flows and that the investment cycle that we see in the industry is a long-term investment cycle for our equity holders because we derisk the business and given you a confidence level that quarter in, quarter out, year-to-year we can continue to produce the kinds of returns that our capital owners deserve.
So if we think about it, the first step when we go all the way back to 2007 was the importance of industry consolidation and we will, I believe shortly have the U.S. Air American transaction concluded and I don't have any, you may all have better inside information than I do, but we've been vocal supporters of that transaction and further consolidation both domestically and around the world. And for Delta, its given Delta, having concluded our mergers quite successfully has given us a significant lead in the industry and it's a lead that we don't intend on relinquishing.
Consolidation will continue, and that consolidation is both domestically and internationally and it's not just in transactions, it's also asset transactions like the one we concluded with US Air for New York City, it's cross-border investment as we announced yesterday with Virgin, as we did a year ago with GOL and earlier car rentals phoenix arizona hybird cars this year with Aeroméxico and with the joint venture that we have with Air France KLM.
If you think about what I will refer to as normal businesses, normal businesses grow two ways. They grow through organic investments and they grow through transactions. In our industry, car rentals phoenix arizona hybird cars as you can see in the US, we are going to get to where we need to be in terms of really four industry participants and when you think about how the regulators have allowed that to occur, Southwest does air trend, Delta does the Northwest transaction, Continental and United merged and then the last piece of that puzzle is American and US Air and it's been a long journey in the industry to get to a rational industry construct, but we believe that in 2013 we will be in that construct.
And similar activities are occurring around the world and we will continue car rentals phoenix arizona hybird cars to participate in those because car rentals phoenix arizona hybird cars in a sense these are really the cross-border transactions that we enter into are really about consolidation. It's just because of foreign ownership restrictions and alike that that has to be done through investment, joint ventures and antitrust amenities and Ed and Glen will speak further to this as we go through the day.
But, this is a really good part of what's happened car rentals phoenix arizona hybird cars over the past five years to this industry that gets all of you as our investors confident that these cash flows will continue and the multiple expansions for the kinds of cash flow that we have in this industry will occur. And you can see what progress it has given the industry, car rentals phoenix arizona hybird cars when you think about where the industry may have been 15 or 20 years ago and where it is today, you have got management teams that are quite rational about deployment of capital and returns on invested capital.
So let's talk a bit about where we are at Delta, and how we are building that sustainable franchise and developing your confidence and our long term cash flows. As we look out, there are really three important steps that we have undertaken and as we approach 2013, we will be in our fourth year and we think about our shareholders of strong performance. So between 2010, 2011 and 2012 we had $4 billion of free cash flow, we reduced our debt $5.2 billion, our margin is up 800 basis points and importantly, we had a 10% return on invested capital over that timeframe. 2012 will shape up to be quite a good year; we expect the profit of about $1.6 billion which will be about a 30% improvement year-over-year or about $350 million.
So when you look at the progress that we have made since our first session here in New York in 2007, it's been quite remarkable and its really been about a strategy that's built around solid returns on invested capital which we've hit our 10% ROIC over this timeframe from 2010 and we expect as we go into 2013 that 2013 will be a really solid improvement over 2012.
We've maintained a RASM premium for nearly car rentals phoenix arizona hybird cars two years now. Glen will go through in detail why that premium is sustainable and we are going to talk as I get to the last slide on an issue that its been important for everyone which is Delta you've been down a strong path of managing your CapEx, paying down debt and improving free cash flow, and if you look at our margin expansion car rentals phoenix arizona hybird cars over since 2010 800 basis points margin expansion, 2013 is 100 basis points margin expansion, and we have a long term macro goal to continue that sort of increased improvement over time.
So being a really good place for shareholders to invest their money and trust that we are going to wisely deploy our capital, as the industry consolidates we can't be a commodity. Customers, the banks you work for, the investors car rentals phoenix arizona hybird cars you work for, the decisions that the Fortune 100 companies make around travel is we can't be a commodity. We compete on a global landscape and when you think about what you want as an airline customer or your company wants as an airline customer you want a high quality product and Steve Gorman today will take you through without a doubt Delta is the best operating airline in the world. You can look at our completion car rentals phoenix arizona hybird cars factor, on time performance bags but moreover look at our customer survey data.
We win the Business Travel News Award two years in row and that's important. You don't get to the RASM premium that we have without valuing your customers and taking care of your customers and getting them where they want to go on time with a courteous staff, a clean airplane and a premium product. It's an important part of the strategy and will remain an important car rentals phoenix arizona hybird cars part of the strategy, because the commoditization of the industry, no industry does well when its commoditized, purely commoditized and while we compete in all segments of the market, car rentals phoenix arizona hybird cars we have and we will continue to provide a superior product to support the revenue gains that you've seen us make over the last several