Delta Air Lines will not have to implement involuntary
furloughs for flight attendants or frontline ground employees next month, CEO
Ed Bastian said in a memo on Tuesday.
The carrier had an "enormous response" to
voluntary departure and early retirement packages offered over the summer, with
about 20 per cent of Delta's employees taking those options, according to
Bastian. About 40,000 employees also signed up for short and long-term unpaid
leaves of absence, and ground-based employees have had work hours reduced by a
quarter, which Delta has now extended through the end of the year, he said. In
addition, Delta has secured US$6.5 billion in financing through its SkyMiles
programme.
All of those measures mean Delta has "effectively
managed our staffing between now and the start of peak summer 2021 travel",
Bastian said in the memo.
1 October marks the end of the period in which US airlines,
per the Covid-19 relief package passed earlier this year, agreed not to
implement involuntary furloughs. United Airlines, for example, for several
months has been preparing employees for massive furloughs. On CBS's Face the
Nation on Sunday, United CEO Scott Kirby said the carrier potentially will have
to lay off about 16,000 employees if the aid is not extended, though the
carrier is working with unions to reduce that number.
"We raised about $18 billion in capital since this
started to get through the crisis, but in a world where we're still burning $25
million per day, you just can't go forever on that," Kirby said, according
to a transcript provided by CBS News. "Our view is demand is not coming
back. People are not going to get back and travel like they did before until
there's a vaccine that's been widely distributed and available to a large
portion of the population."
Delta pilots could still face furloughs after the October
deadline, as the carrier projects it will have more pilots than needed at that
time. Bastian said Delta is working with its pilots' union "to
cost-effectively reduce or eliminate this number." Bastian also hopes for
an extension of federal aid, but that "looks uncertain", he said.