Does Delta Require COVID-19 Testing For Domestic Flights

Delta Airlines Phone Number 1-800-610-2592 According to CNN News, Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian says a proposed rule that would require all domestic flyers to test negative for Covid-19 before boarding a plane is a bad idea because it will not keep domestic flyers more safe and would set back the transportation and hospitality sector for at least another year.

So the White House is now considering a rule that would require all 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. The CDC is looking at all its options but you know there there's got to be common sense of medicine science really driving this. So what would that mean for an already struggling airline industry this is delta makes a significant move extending the airline's middle seat block making it the only U. S. carrier to keep that safety measure in place delta CEO ed Bastian joins us exclusively this morning and it's really good to have you thanks for coming on. Always good to be with the public so let's start there on the consideration right now by the by the ministration of possibly mandated negative cover test for any domestic fire is that a good idea. I think it's a horrible idea of for a lot of reasons first and foremost we're carrying as a U. S. industry over 1000000 people a day on average and and that number is starting to to grow again which which we like to see travel domestically in the air 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 just domestically it would also take probably about 10 percent of the testing resources that this country needs to do to test sick people away from those people it's hard to get tested there's days of delay still I think it would be a logistical nightmare and would set the trance not just to try transportation and travel industry back with the whole hospitality sector the hotels it set us back at least probably another year in the recovery so I mean you have led delta through this whole pandemic really from a health and safety over profit first that's been clear on the decisions you've made are you saying it's delta's assessment of that negative covert testing mandated will not keep domestic fire safer. It will not keep domestic flyers say sure if anything is going to keep people away from what they need to do which is to in terms of you know start to get back out you know for not just essential travel but people need to start reclaiming their lives and taking testing resources away from those truly in need I think would be a terrible decision let's talk about the decision you made yesterday that makes delta the only U. S. carrier to continue to block middle seats at that takes up about 30 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. While protecting the health and 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 our customers really safe while customer satisfaction on delta is always been strong we've 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 we'll be looking out we look over the next 90 days while we see demand starting to improve a bit we still know there's a lot of work to do to continue to restore 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 made the opposite decision. Well it's expensive there's no question about it but interestingly in the the most recent year we finished in fact most recent fourth quarter we reported a couple weeks ago adult actually had more revenue on average than any of our competitors that competitor average in the industry despite the fact we have 20 percent fewer seats available for sale so 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 I'm literally taking part of terminal C. at your Atlanta hub and vaccinating your employees I wonder how that's going and the majority of your employees actually taking the vaccine or using hesitancy. Well there we started yesterday so it's yeah or 2 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 turn it into a vaccination center we got great support from the city and aren't our friends over at Hartsfield Jackson airport well we start we're starting with the 65 and above population within delta but also other airport community workers other airline workers that are over 65 that are based here in Georgia and they can qualify were were 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 of 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 to your point I know you know that the United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby wants to mandate vaccinations 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 it 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 yeah we're gonna strongly encourage vaccinations I know our people understand how important it is to restore confidence back in travel and getting vaccinated is one of those steps that will take I think that's a decision for later on as we go through the course of the day okay via 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 30000 of their employees combined that they may be out of a job furloughed come April 1 even without any potential sort of third round of government aid is delta facing something similar can you guarantee at this point you don't need to do anymore for laws or layoffs. We we are not doing anymore for a lot we we haven't done it for us throughout the entire pandemic poppy our team out on 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 20 percent of our people did decide to retire so our team is doing a great job and no we are not in danger any furloughs adult that is really good news for the thousands of folks that work for you and thanks to all of them everyday for what they do at bastion thanks for coming on the. Thank you.