LONDON – Delta Air Lines has announced that it will remove 100 daily flights each day between July 1 and August 7.
In the release, Delta stated that it was doing this to “build additional resilience in our system and improve operational reliability for our customers and employees; we’ll continue to proactively adjust select flights in the coming weeks.”
Various Factors Impacting Operations…
Expanding more on this was Allison Ausband, Delta’s Chief Customer Experience Officer:
“More than any time in our history, the various factors currently impacting our operation – weather and air traffic control, vendor staffing, increased COVID case rates contributing to higher-than-planned unscheduled absences in some workgroups – are resulting in an operation that isn’t consistently up to the standards Delta has set for the industry in recent years”.
“We deeply appreciate the energy and efforts of our people and the confidence of our customers as we adapt and pivot to ensure we provide the airline-of-choice experience we’re so proud to be known for.”
The release also stated the following for customers:
“If upcoming bookings for later this summer happen to change, our teams will provide customers with the next-best itinerary that gets them where they need to go with the shortest delay possible.”
Memorial Day Weekend Is Going To Be A Busy One…
Delta is expected to have a significantly busy Memorial Day weekend, with around 2.5 million passengers expected to fly with the carrier that weekend.
This represents a 25% increase compared to the same period in 2021, meaning more capacity will have to be added to these flights.
Looking ahead, it is going to be interesting to see how Delta is going to make the changes work with as little disruption to its passengers as possible.
The July 1-August 7 flight changes will affect approximately 3,800 flights in total, which is a big chunk of the airline’s operations.
Delta Has Had A Busy 2022 Already…
Delta Air Lines has had a busy first half of the year already, with many things happening.
It was then announced that the airline was considering throwing its hat into the ITA Airways ring for a partial acquisition.
On top of this, the airline expanded its Hawaiian offerings ahead of the Winter 2022/23 schedule from the likes of Atlanta, Detroit & New York’s JFK.
There was also the news that the airline was in talks with Boeing to acquire 100 737 MAX aircraft as demand ramped up and the need for more aircraft became clearer.
Then, around two months ago, the airline took delivery of its first Airbus A321neo, with the airline expected to welcome another 26 this year alone.
More recently, the airline received approval to operate flights to South Africa from Atlanta, with the aim of serving Cape Town and Johannesburg overall.
Delta then made a historic moment for the U.S airline industry by making the decision to pay flight attendants during boarding in an industry first.
The airline then made some partnership agreements, with REX in Australia and SKY Express in Greece, before beginning its A321neo operations.
So, the airline has been making the steps it needs to in order to continue the level of success it experienced post-pandemic and get itself closer to recovery.
