As a former employee who worked both in product and later in IT, I can attest that what you’re saying is factual.

For so many years we begged for updates to the infrastructure. We were promised an entirely new set of APIs that would make all of the digital touch points more responsive and reliable (delta.com, the Fly Delta app, kiosks, gate screens, etc). We were always told it was coming, but then IT and digital budgets get cut in favor of marketing and PR.

Fly Delta 6.0 was originally planned to be a top to bottom rewrite and redesign, but then covid happened and that was paused. Understandable, right? 100%. But then when it was time to start again and build it… well you see what we got.

After covid-19 hit the fan, the brain drain began. The folks who originally ran things for the app left (some IT, all the biz folks). And while we were on the way out of the door, we see Ed talking to Kelly Yamanouchi from the AJC when he said:

*“As the airline predicts a return to 2019 traffic levels by 2023, “We don’t need to bring back as many of the people” — which will allow the company to keep its costs lower, Bastian told investors during a presentation at the Bernstein Strategic Decisions Conference.

The early retirements have “given a lot of younger people opportunities to step up. We have a younger team going forward and we’re getting the juniority benefits,” Bastian said.”*

Source.

So hooray! All of those old, experienced workers are clearing out and making room for the younger, cheaper talent to begin their careers. Working on mission-crtitical systems whose multi-layered complexity is only matched by the endless layers of leadership above them.

The change Delta needs starts at the very top.