Delta Air Lines used to be known for its operational excellence, but the Atlanta-based airline is now unable to consistently execute its scheduled holiday operations. What is happening?
Delta canceling dozens of flights at Easter
So far, Delta has canceled 74 flights today, compared with five cancellations on American and one on United. These operational problems are expected to continue at least until tomorrow, so don’t expect flights to return to normal tomorrow.
It’s a significant number of cancellations, but what makes it worse is that Delta seems to be doing a ritual of having problems over the holidays. Delta collapsed on Thanksgiving Day with over 600 cancellations, which it basically attributed to the coronavirus. So Delta also canceled dozens of flights at Christmas. And now it’s Easter …
Delta temporarily suspends seat lock
Delta is the only major airline in the United States to consistently block seats in all staterooms, and we know that the airline will end this policy on May 1, 2021. Well, for Sunday and Monday, Delta will suspend its policy current seat lock, to be able to accommodate as many customers as possible.
I see both sides here, but my God, this sucks:
- On the one hand, if you have major operational problems, I can understand that the priority is to get as many people on the planes as possible; Delta claims that an “overwhelming” number of people have been rescheduled for the same day trip
- On the other hand, many people struggle to book Delta and even pay more because of this seat lockout policy
Delta needs to do something substantial and proactive for those who are not getting an empty seat next to them as promised, as this has been a point of differentiation for the airline.
Why is Delta having operational problems?
Delta claims that these cancellations are due to “several factors”, including:
- Folks
- Large number of vaccinations of employees
- Pilots returning to active status
At the most basic level, this boils down to a shortage of pilot personnel:
- Due to the large number of pilots who have retired and left early, pilots are having to be retrained on new aircraft, and this is not a nightly process
- Delta doesn’t have enough pilots to fly the right types of airplanes, in particular narrow-body aircraft
- Under normal circumstances, this is not a problem, but when Delta tries to increase vacation capacity, that’s where it becomes problematic
- This problem is compounded by Delta’s seat-locking policy, which allows the airline to offer only significantly less capacity than competitors
To be clear, it is entirely fair if Delta is not in a position to increase capacity and spread very little. The question is why the airline continues to overburden itself – this is the third time this has happened during a holiday. The airline has promised to learn after Thanksgiving, but has not yet done so.
Result
Delta is having some significant operational problems over Easter, as the airline canceled dozens of flights due to a shortage of pilots. To accommodate as many passengers as possible, the airline is also suspending its typical seat blocking policy.
Obviously, it is a difficult time for airlines in terms of scheduling and personnel, but this is the third time that Delta has been in a situation like this since the end of last year, while American and United are not. What is happening?
Can anyone understand why Delta is not learning from its mistakes? Have any OMAAT readers been affected by these operational problems?
(Tip of the hat to see from the wing)