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So the White House is now considering a rule that would require old domestic flyers to test negative for covert before boarding a plane here is transportation secretary people to judge last night Erin Burnett on where that stands.
CDC is looking at all options but you know there's there's got to be common sense medicine signs release driving this.
So what would that mean for an already struggling airline industry this is delta makes a significant move extending the airlines middle seat block making it the only U. S. Kerrier to keep that safety measure in place delta CEO ed Bastian joined us exclusively this morning and it's really good to have you thanks for coming on.
Always good to be with the property.
So let's start there on the consideration right now by the by administration of possibly mandated negative cover test for any domestic fire is that a good idea.
I think it's a horrible idea for a lot of reasons first and foremost we're caring as a U. S. Industry over a million people a day on average and and that number is starting to to grow again which which we'd like to see a travel domestically and they are transportation system is the safest form of transportation I think we all know that incidence of spread aboard any of our planes is is absolutely minimal in fact the very very few documented cases globally not systematically it would also take probably about ten percent of the testing resources that this country needs to do to test six people away from those people it's hard to get past there's days of delay still I think it would be a logistical nightmare and would set the transfer not just to try transportation in travel industry back with the whole hospitality sector the hotels it says back at least probably another year in the recovery.
So I mean you have let delta through this whole pandemic really from a health and safety over profit for that thing clear on the decision is made are you saying it's delta the fast minta that negative covert testing mandated will not keep domestic fire safer.
It will not keep domestic wire Sager if anything is going to keep people away from what they need to do which is in terms of you know start to get back out you know for not just essential travel but people need to start it reclaiming their lives and taking testing resources away from those truly in need I think would be a terrible decision.
Let's talk bout the decision you made yesterday that makes delta the only U. S. Kerrier to continue to block middle seats and at that takes up about thirty percent of the revenue that you could be getting I wonder why why you made that decision and if it will extend even beyond the end of April.
Well protecting the health and the the safety of our employees and our customers has been our principal objective throughout the pandemic we are teams doing a great job with all of our safety protocols as I just mentioned and we're keeping our people or customers really save while customer satisfaction on delta is always been strong we seen over the last year it's even stronger and we know the middle seat is one of the things that people really value when they make the decision in the face of a pandemic to to travel on delta will be looking out we look over the next ninety days while we C. demand starting to improve a bit we still no there's a lot of work to do to continue to restore a customers confidence in in air travel and when demand starts to return for those seats when people are saying we need those seats to be sold in the market place that will dictate that decision but not before that.
How much is it costing the airline to keep doing this I mean every other competitor me the opposite decision.
Well it's expensive there's no question about it but interestingly in the the most recent year we finish in fact most recent fourth quarter we reported a couple weeks ago delta actually had more revenue on average than any of our competitors as compared or average in the industry despite the fact we had twenty percent fewer seats available for sale two people are prioritizing as they should their health and safety and comfort as they travel and we're getting a many many full premium for travel on delta.
Let's talk about vaccinations you guys have just started this week literally taking part of terminal C. at your Atlanta hub and vaccinating your employees I wonder how that's going and are the majority of your employees actually taking the vaccine or using hesitancy.
Well we started yesterday so it's or two early to to give you any any signs of where it's going but we're thrilled to take part of concourse C. over and turned it into a vaccination center we got great support from the city and our our friends over at Hartsfield Jackson airport we start we're starting with the sixty five and above population within delta but also other airport community workers other airline workers that are over sixty five that are based here in Georgia and they can qualify we're we're offering the vaccines to them as well we're going to be later in this week opening up our flight museum here on the campus with delta for those same population for people to get vaccinated and working closely with the Georgia department of health because I think corporate America really needs to lean in for these next several months to try to get the does the distribution of vaccinations at a much higher clip.
So tier point I know you know that the United Airlines the O. Scott Kirby wants to mandate vaccination for all of his airline's employees but he says he can't do it without all of his competitors on board are you considering mandating do you think he's right are you considering mandating vaccines for your front line delta employees and interact with other people.
Hi I think it's far too early to make decisions about mandating first of all most of our employees can't even get the vaccines we don't have the supplies yet are we gonna strongly encourage vaccinations I know our people understand how important it is to restore confidence back in travel and getting vaccinated as one of those steps that will take I think that's a decision for later on as we go through the course of the okay the vaccination efforts.
Fair enough final question we just on the last week American Airlines and United together are going to have to send out these letters warning about thirty thousand of their employees combined that they may be out of a job furloughed come April first even without any potential to the third round of government aid D. is delta facing something similar or can you guarantee at this point you don't need to do anymore for lotus or laugh.
We we are not doing anymore for a lot we we haven't done it for less throughout the entire pandemic poppy our team and a great job of saving jobs by volunteering for time off and we've had a large retirement offer that we we made last year we got about twenty percent of our people to decide to retire so our team is doing a great job and no we are not in danger any furloughs of delta.
That is really good news for the thousand the folks that work for you and thanks to all of them I everyday for what they do and fashion thanks for coming on.
