Georgia based airline Delta Airlines has announced that it has cancelled more than 100 flights on April 4, 2021. The cancellations were made due to shortage of staff. It has also opened up the middle seats, nearly a month in advance so it can carry more passengers as the travel demand increases. The airline explained that it has had more than 1 million passengers during the past few days and the number is the highest ever since the pandemic started in 2020.
The airline released a statement on Sunday in which it apologized to the customers for the inconvenience. However, a majority of them have been rebooked for same day travel. Delta has also taken steps to increase its passenger capacity and has opened for middle seats as well on Sunday and Monday. It was just last week, when the airline had said that it would stop blocking the middle seats in the month of May, 2021. The measure of blocking the middle seats was taken in April, 2020 so that social distancing could be followed between the passengers to keep them at a safe distance.
The airline had then said that it would reopen the middle seats as the air travel recovers and more people are vaccinated against the coronavirus. Delta Airlines has also clarified that it has opened the middle seats only for Sunday and Monday and that its seat-blocking policy has not been changed. The airline added that the seats were unblocked to allow accommodate the passengers so they could be reached to their destinations on the same day.
The statement from Delta added that it was working on a number of issues like staffing and a large number of employees being vaccinated and the pilots returning to active status. Meanwhile, the air travel in the United States is recovering at a slow and a steady pace after the pandemic. Last summer led to losses for a number of airlines across the globe.
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