• Delta Air Lines will furlough nearly 2,000 pilots on October 1, the airline said in a memo to workers on Monday.
• More than 1,800 pilots have taken early retirements or buyouts during the pandemic, but the airline is still overstaffed as travel demand recovers more slowly than initially expected.
• Delta expects its peak demand for the next 12-18 months to come in summer 2021, but even then the airline expects demand to remain below 2019 levels.
• Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

Delta Air Lines will furlough 1,941 pilots on October 1, the airline said in a memo to staff on Monday, unless a last-minute deal can be reached with their union.

The airline, which currently has about 11,200 active pilots, believes it will need just 9,450 pilots next summer, when it expects to see “the peak flying for the next 12-18 months,” senior vice president of flight operations John Laughter wrote in a memo to pilots, seen by Business Insider.

“We are simply overstaffed, and we are faced with an incredibly difficult decision,” Laughter wrote.

Airlines have been hit particularly hard by COVID-19, with travel demand collapsing early in the pandemic and making only modest recoveries …continued .
[Source: Business Insider]