Delta Air Lines Readies for Holiday Travel Season

Airlines have come under fire for the majority of 2022 as they struggle to meet demand amid pilot and other staffing shortages as well as suspended routes, reduced capacity on existing ones and potentially looming strikes.

That’s all to say the industry has inspired very little confidence in the traveling public ahead of the busy holiday travel season.

Appearing on the TODAY Show in New York City this week, Delta CEO Ed Bastian was adamant that travelers flying the Atlanta-based carrier have little to worry about this winter.

“We’re ready. We’ve hired 25,000 people since the start of last year and there was a lot of training and experience that needed to be acquired but we’re ready to go and we’re expecting more than 5 million people for the Thanksgiving week,” he said.

“We’re absolutely prepared at Delta.”

When asked about the potential for a crippling pilot strike ahead of the Christmas holiday, Bastian said “there’s no possibility that they could go on strike for Thanksgiving, Christmas or anytime.”

“We are in mediation with the National Mediation Board and there are many phases and stages to go. We’re actually a lot closer than people like to think in terms of trying to get this deal done,” he told TODAY.

Bastian’s interview comes on the heels of the airline expanding service to South America from its hub in Atlanta.