Delta CEO sees a slight recovery from the travel slum later in 2021


Delta Air Lines leaders are telling workers they expect a slight recovery from coronavirus travel downturn by spring.

CEO Ed Bastian writes to employees in a New Year’s Day memo that he expects the start of the 2021 journey to be as gloomy as last year. But, as vaccines become more widely available, it is expected, especially in business travel. He says that by spring the Delta should generate positive cash flow.

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Bastian writes that once a significant number of people have been vaccinated there is uncertainty about what the demand for travel will look like, and that the Delta should be agile and ready for change.

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“Just as we have never experienced a global epidemic in our history, we have never planned or executed a recovery from anyone,” Bastian wrote. “Our success depends on our collaboration, our willingness to be open to new ideas, our ability to accept and humility in the belief that we don’t always know the answers.”

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Air travel is less than half of what it was in 2019, but it was able to recover a little from a surprising 96% drop in mid-April last year.

While it’s not clear how quickly the vaccine will be distributed in the U.S., health officials from the Trump administration talked about the goal of carrying enough vaccines to inoculate 20 million Americans by the end of the month. Earlier this week, the government said 14 million doses had been sent, but only 2.8 million injections had been given. Officials said there is a lot of error in reporting vaccinations, but it is still happening at a slower pace than expected. They expect the pace to pick up next week.

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President-elect Joe Biden on Tuesday said the Trump administration was “falling behind” and once Jan. Guaranteed to speed up when he takes office on the 20th. In early December, Biden’s administration pledged to distribute 100 million shots in the first 100 days.