Almost 2,000 Delta Pilots Will Be Furloughed in October

Almost 2,000 Delta Pilots Will Be Furloughed in October

Even as air travel has rebounded in recent weeks, air traffic is still far away from the 2019 numbers. Until now airline employees have remained employed and paid thanks to the CARES Act. Delta received $5.4 billion in grant funds and unsecured loans from it, but that  bailout prohibited the airline industry from employee layoffs, involuntary furloughs or pay cuts. Those restrictions will expire at the end of September.

United Airlines and American Airlines have already said that they expect to lay off employees in the fall. Now Delta is warning that they will be forced to do so as well. The Altanta based airline expects to furlough 1,941 pilots in October as the airline industry struggles to rebound.

“We’ve said before that early retirements alone wouldn’t solve the pilot overstaffing situation caused by the Covid-19 pandemic,” said John Laughter, senior vice president of flight operations, in an internal memo to employees, as reported by CNN.

Delta currently has 11,200 active pilots, but will need roughly 9,450 pilots for the summer 2021 schedule. That will be the peak flying period for the next year or so. During July and August, which are the busiest months, we usually saw more than 2.7 million passengers pass through TSA checkpoints. The highest number in recent weeks was on August 16th, when 862,949 went through checkpoints. That’s much better than the 87,534 people that traveled on April 14, but there’s still a long way to go to get back to normal. Since the pandemic hit, Delta says only 25% of revenue has been recovered.

Delta has urged employees to take advantage of buyout and voluntary exit programs, which is something that other airlines have done as well. Even with some employees opting to take these options, it isn’t enough to prevent furloughs.

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