Delta cutting flights to ‘relieve pressure’

Delta Air Lines Inc. is cutting flights just ahead of the busy Memorial Day weekend and through the summer to help it recover faster from bad weather, higher-thanexpected worker absences and other issues that have rattled recent operations.

The airline said it will trim about 100 flights a day in the U.S. and Latin America from July 1 through Aug. 7 to help bolster reliability for remaining flights. Delta said additional adjustments could be made, hinting at possible further reductions. The nearer-term cancellations for the upcoming holiday weekend, initially disclosed in a memo sent to employees late Wednesday, are designed “to relieve pressure by pro-actively thinning the schedule over Memorial Day and through the balance of June.”

Weather, vendor staffing and air traffic control issues, along with higher-than-expected absences among airline work groups, are affecting Delta’s operations “more than any time in our history,” the memo from Chief of Operations John Laughter and Allison Ausband, chief customer experience officer, said.

Packed planes over the summer could make it difficult for airlines to move thousands of stranded passengers to other flights. It could take several days for some travelers affected by the latest Delta cuts to reach their destination, Robert Mann, president of consultant R.W. Mann & Co., said in an interview.

“It’s consistent with what we’ve seen by others in the industry; it’s just late in the game,” Mann said. “It’s really late in the game if you’re flying over the Memorial Day weekend. It’s embarrassingly late for that.”

Delta’s latest reductions account for about 2% of its scheduled flights during the July through early August period.