Delta Airlines contract workers were flying high Thursday undefined a day before they were set to land fatter paychecks thanks to the Daily News.

The workers at Kennedy and LaGuardia Airports are expecting to see the proceeds of the $1-an-hour raises in their Friday checks.

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“It’s a good first step,” said Prince Jackson, 56, a Kennedy Airport security guard who had been making $8 an hour. “I can get a MetroCard and maybe I can get cable television.”

Delta authorized the raises after the Port Authority sent a sternly worded letter to the area’s major airlines, imploring them to raise the pay of the 12,000 poorly paid contract workers at Kennedy, LaGuardia and Newark airports. So far Delta is flying solo.

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The Port Authority applied the pressure after the News launched its Fight for Fair Pay campaign to improve the wages of the underpaid workers.

Contract workers at Newark got a glimmer of hope this week when one of the New Jersey-appointed members of the Port Authority Board of Commissioners called for a “living wage.”

“All workers deserve a family-sustaining wage and benefits for their labor,” Raymond Pocino, vice president of the Laborers’ International Union of North America, wrote in an open letter.