Preparations are on for a busy travel weekend. Delta pilots are staging a nationwide walkout.
Ahead of the holiday weekend, pilots for Delta Airlines are staging picket lines across the United States at many of the airline’s main hubs.
This comes in an effort to exert pressure on the company to resume contract talks.
Holiday Weekend
On Thursday morning, hundreds of off-duty Delta pilots gathered in front of the airline’s hubs in Atlanta, NYC, and Detroit.
They did so to demand the company make changes to its compensation standards, retirement guidelines, and pilot scheduling procedures.
Ambrosi made the following comments in response to a question about the airline’s plans for the upcoming holiday weekend.
“We are in the midst of the perfect storm. Even though demand has increased and pilots are working unprecedented amounts of overtime, we still see cancellations.”
“This leaves our clients stuck and ruins their holiday plans. Sadly, this poor management has not improved.”
The Airline Pilots Association is the organization that represents all 13,900 Delta pilots.
The @Delta_Pilots are working under a contract signed 6 years ago. We're picketing at @DTWeetin to tell @Delta mgmt it's time to get serious at the negotiating table. New contract now! https://t.co/FNtY6iWG9l#DeltaPilots #DeltaPilotContractNow #DeltaPilotsReadyToStrike #HatsOff pic.twitter.com/urziDl9ids
— Delta Air Lines Pilots (@Delta_Pilots) June 30, 2022
In addition to increased compensation and enhanced protections for retirement, the pilots want their work schedules to be revamped. The airline is taking unnecessary risks with its current timetable.
Pilots were seen outside seven terminals, including Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Los Angeles International Airport, and Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport.
Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport was also included, along with Salt Lake City International Airport and Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.
New Terms
At the time of the picketing, about 400 pilots were demonstrating at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, the busiest airport in the country.
The pilots continue to work under the terms of a contract that ran out in 2016. Delta’s pilots’ union restarted contract talks with the airline in January.
This came after taking a break since the start of the pandemic, due to the outbreak of the virus.
Delta MEC Chairman Jason Ambrosi with an important message from the Delta pilot picket line at @ATLairport.#DeltaPilots #ALPAPilots #DeltaPilotContractNow #DeltaPilotsReadyToStrike #HatsOff pic.twitter.com/i0QtOxnzeQ
— Delta Air Lines Pilots (@Delta_Pilots) June 30, 2022
In a letter to customers, Delta pilots projected at their present rate, they will have racked up record extra shifts in 2022.
This ended up outperforming the whole of 2018 and 2019, the airline’s highest traffic years to date. This prediction was made in response to the fact that the pilots are currently working at a higher rate than average.
Delta made an announcement on Tuesday that it would provide a travel exemption between July 1 and July 4, allowing people to rebook their trips before, as well as after, the travel days without incurring any fare discrepancies or change fees.
This was done in preparation for “operational challenges” that were expected over the holiday weekend.
As per Hopper, there will be an influx of more than 12.9 million travelers into airports across the United States over the long weekend.
This will happen even though there will be a lot of canceled flights, delayed flights, and other problems across the industry.
