Delta Air Lines slashes flights to ‘relieve pressure’ on operations

Bloomberg

Delta Air Lines Inc is cutting flights just ahead of the busy Memorial Day weekend and through the summer to help it recover faster from bad weather, higher-than-expected worker absences and other issues that have rattled recent operations.
The airline said it will trim about 100 flights a day in the US and Latin America from July 1 through August 7 to help bolster reliability for remaining flights. Delta said additional adjustments could be made, hinting at possible further reductions.
The nearer-term cancellations for the upcoming holiday weekend, initially disclosed in a memo sent to employees, are designed “to relieve pressure by pro-actively thinning the schedule over Memorial Day and through the balance of June.”
Delta has prided itself on its relatively low cancellation and flight-delay rate compared with other carriers but the last-minute decision to slash its schedule shows how precarious the ability to staff flights has become.
Nearly all US carriers cut initial second-quarter capacity, with some trimming into the third quarter, as they struggled to balance surging demand with a pilot shortage.
Weather, vendor staffing
and air traffic control issues, along with higher-than-expected absences among some airline work groups, are affecting Delta’s operations “more than any time in our history,” said the memo from Chief of Operations John Laughter and Allison Ausband, chief customer experience officer.
Packed planes over the summer could make it difficult for airlines to move thousands of stranded passengers to other flights. It could take several days for some travelers affected by the latest Delta cuts to reach their destination, Robert Mann, president of consultant RW Mann & Co, said.
“It’s consitent with what we’ve seen by others in the industry, it’s just late in the game,” Mann said.
Delta’s latest reductions account for about 2% of its scheduled flights during the July through early August period. It will follow a planned cut in second-quarter capacity by 16% from 2019 levels. United Airlines Inc expects a 13%
decline while American Airlines Group Inc will be down as much as 8%.