» Delta to warn 2,558 pilots of possible furloughs, seeks early retirements,

Company’s CEO expects demand during summer to be 25% of last year.

Delta Air Lines is warning more than 2,500 pilots of potential furloughs, as it seeks early retirements to cut back its workforce.

Atlanta-based Delta and its pilots union reached an agreement on an early retirement offer Friday.

About 7,900 pilots qualify for early retirement, but Delta senior vice president of flight operations John Laughter wrote in a memo to pilots “early retirements alone likely won’t be enough to avoid pilot furloughs.”

Airlines are reeling from a steep decline in air travel amid the coronavirus pandemic. Airline passenger traffic is still down roughly 80% and airlines expect it will take years to recover.

Delta CEO Ed Bastian told employees in a memo Friday the airline is adding flights in July and August, but still, “we expect our overall demand this summer to be only 25% of last summer’s revenue, and we likely remain at least two years away from a return to normal.”

The airline has told employees it may furlough workers if it doesn’t get enough people signing up for buyouts and early retirements offered to most of its 90,000 employees.

Laughter wrote that the company plans to send out notices to 2,558 of its roughly 14,000 pilots this week warning them of a possible furlough. Such WARN Act notices are intended to give at least 60 days’ notice of mass layoffs.

The move comes as the airline and its pilots union, the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA), have been in negotiations on a new labor contract since before the

COVID-19 pandemic.

Laughter wrote: “We hope that we will not have to reduce jobs involuntarily” and said the company is prepared to continue discussions with the union on an agreement with a no-furlough commitment for two years that would come along with other cost cuts.

“We look forward to working with ALPA on this next critical piece of our plan to protect as many — if not all — pilot jobs through the pandemic,” Laughter wrote in the memo.

The pilots union said the memo from Laughter was “received poorly” by pilots and said the union offered other savings and negotiated the early retirement program to offer flexibility, help save on training costs and mitigate the furloughs of pilots.

The early retirement offer would allow pilots who qualify to get 58 hours of pay per month for three years or until the pilot reaches age 65, along with health care coverage and flight benefits.

Pilots have until July 19 to apply for early retirements, and would leave the company by Jan. 1, 2022 on an exit schedule determined by the company.

Delta and other airlines that accepted billions of dollars in federal relief funding from the CARES Act are barred from involuntary furloughs through Sept. 30.

Unions representing airline workers Friday pushed for an extension of federal aid to airlines through March 2021 to keep aviation workers on payroll.

“Air travel remains a slight fraction of last year’s levels and demand will remain depressed well into next year,” says the letter to congressional leaders from unions for airline employees. Without more federal aid, “Hundreds of thousands of workers will lose their jobs and health insurance — not only in aviation, but across our entire economy.”