Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian said the airline has set aside $6 billion for refunds starting in 2020, related to granting compensation for canceling or significantly changing its flight schedule. At the same time, the same airline has launched detailed steps to improve the services provided to its customers.
“Since the beginning of 2020, we have refunded more than 11 million tickets, with a total economic value of $6 billion. Of these refunds, 20% were in 2022,” Bastian said in a letter to the minister. Transportation Pete Buttige released yesterday.
He revealed that Delta automatically allocated an additional 10,000 miles to the accounts of its regular customers, for those of them who encountered problems with their flights, for the period from May 1 to July 7.
Some members of Congress have pushed airlines to do more to strengthen their customer refund programs. Buttige recently said his ministry has completed 10 airline investigations into refund practices, while implementing law enforcement practices, and has proposed new rules on refunds for issued tickets.
Bastian stated that: “Delta’s ability to restore its flight schedule in 2022, compared to that of 2019, is the lowest among the company’s competitors.” He added that Delta “currently has 91% of active pilots compared to 2019 active pilots, while covering 86% of 2019 departures.”
The US Federal Aviation Administration revealed earlier this month that in May, Delta pilots lost 19,985 days due to illness, a 45% increase in the flight schedule’s loss of 13,786 days in May. of 2019. In June, pilot sick days increased 50% compared to June 2019. Delta also reported in May that the company’s flight attendants lost 43,908 days due to illness, a 23% increase according to the FAA .
The FAA announced on August 12 that Delta is likely to temporarily cut some flights to New York’s LaGuardia and John F. Kennedy airports, as well as to Washington National Airport (Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport).
The FAA announced that as part of meeting a condition set for it, Delta “must offer its customers compensation or seat reservations on its own flights or on flights of another airline, related to flights canceled at the three airports above.” ”
In July, Democratic Senators Ed Markey, Elizabeth Warren, Sheldon Whitehouse and Richard Blumenthal, along with about 20 other members of the House of Representatives, introduced legislation to give consumers a “statutory right to full monetary compensation, regarding flight and airline ticket cancellations.”
SOURCE: APE-ME
Source: Capital
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