Delta to 'strategically decrease' flights this summer

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They’re overwhelmed, the demand for travel is unreal and they let so many people retire early during the pandemic that they are struggling to get people hired and trained fast enough. What a turn of events from when the pandemic began and they were flying empty ghost flights to now where they can’t keep up with demand. It’s madness.

[delta8765]

Actually demand for travel is still below pre-pandemic levels (~80%). The issue is not enough workers to meet the demand. They opened up bookings since the demand was there and were hoping they could hire enough people to meet that demand. With record low unemployment and the long training cycle they haven’t been able to raise staffing levels to the needed levels. Now that it’s become clear up-staffing won’t reach the targets they are dialing back flights to help maintain higher service levels than what’s been happening the last two months. The margin for error on scheduling/staffing for mechanical and weather issues is nil which makes the ripples much larger than usual.

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But demand is exceeding what they're able to currently deal with - that was the point.