Delta CEO Ed Bastian faced immense blowback and calls to boycott the airline for his muted response to Georgia's new elections law, a break from his usual vocal support for social justice issues. The airline and his PR-orchestrated statements will face growing scrutiny just as the travel recovery is taking hold.
U.S. airlines are bullish on the coronavirus recovery — finally. After a year of losses, some say the long-elusive inflection in bookings occurred in February with all eyes turned to summer when many expect large numbers of vacationers to return to the skies.
In Skift's top travel stories this week, we highlighted 10 tactical travel learning in travel from a year of the pandemic, Vacasa's move to acquire Turnkey, an Amadeus partnership with Microsoft, and Delta's move to reactivate its pilots.
Delta is taking a big chance with a forward-looking perspective by re-engaging pilots. Whether it's doing the right thing, or setting itself up for failure, will become much more clear in the months ahead.
Flowers are not the only thing sprouting as the weather warms up. Airline bookings are also showing some green shoots but most hesitate to call it a recovery yet with eyes focused on sustained improvements this summer.
It was back to the future for U.S. airlines in 2020 when passenger numbers fell to levels unseen since 1985. And while traffic will likely rebound some this year, the slow vaccine roll out and new Covid-19 strains have the outlook far from certain.