Delta Air Lines [NYSE: DAL] reported Wednesday that its second quarter revenue of $13.8 billion for this year was 10 percent better than the same period in pre-pandemic 2019, a year the airline was named the largest in the world based on revenue. Interestingly, the airline’s recent earnings boost comes despite carrying fewer passengers—15 percent fewer—than it did on average in 2019. Yet, analysts on the company’s earnings call had another thing atop their minds: Delta’s pilot and ongoing labor shortage.
Despite adding 18,000 workers since the beginning of 2021, Delta CEO Ed Bastian said company-wide employment participation was still at 95 percent of 2019 capacity. Still, travel has been smooth for the airline this summer. Bastian said pilots, mechanics, and flight attendants are still needed, but that there would be a slowdown in hiring workers for gate and customer service positions in airports as well as reservations, because it was closing in on its staffing targets for these positions.
