Delta Air Lines has announced that it plans to return some of its employees to full time status as early as January of next year. Many of the companies employees were furloughed as part of cost cutting measures introduced at the airline. However, the CEO of Delta Air Lines, Ed Bastian announced on Wednesday, December 16th, that the US carrier plans to bringing back a good proportion of its employees.
Many of these employees will return to work in the following departments: Technical Operations, Sales and Reservations. In addition more employees will also return to its Customer Service/Support department as passenger demand continues to pick up following the approval of the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine which is currently being distributed to citizens around the United States.
US airlines including Delta are hopeful that a COVID-19 vaccine will encourage more people to travel internationally, and perhaps even allow them to be exempted from international travel restrictions that would otherwise disrupt their travel plans. The CEO of Delta Air Lines said, “The vaccine cannot come soon enough, and that is going to be the key to getting confidence back in travel and people back out in public.”
According to Bastian’s company memo, all merit and hourly paid employees would be returning to full time schedules. Since the pandemic began back in the spring of 2020, Delta was losing over a hundred million dollars (USD$100 million) every single day in cash burn due to operational and payroll expenses. However, now the US carrier has been able to reduce this by around 75% and currently spends about USD$24 million a day. The Chief Executive of Delta Air Lines, Ed Bastian also said that he expects that number to be around $12 to $14 million before the end of the year.
The CEO of Delta Air Lines is confident that the US airline will have a strong return to profitability next spring. The airline has no plans to stop its current COVID-19 safety measures and will continue to make the passenger travel experience a safe and comfortable one. These measures include extensive aircraft cleaning, blocking middle seats and requiring all passengers over the age of 2 to wear a mask.
Delta Air Lines have also fared pretty well with its middle seat blocked policy. Commenting on the middle seat being blocked and its effects on the airline’s revenue, the Chief Executive of Delta Air Lines said, “In the 3rd quarter, with numbers recently released by the industry, Delta had more revenue on its planes than American, Southwest, and United, on average had, despite the fact we had 30% fewer seats available for sale.”
