sky

The number of people flying today is down about 75% from a year ago. And in the fight to attract those few passengers who remain, airlines have promoted their health and safety policies. Delta has tried to stake a claim as one of the most cautious companies in the industry by promising to leave middle seats empty even as American Airlines and United are selling as many seats as they can. Delta has also said that it cleans planes between flights, tests all employees for the coronavirus and aggressively enforces a mask requirement. On Monday, it announced a partnership with Lysol’s parent company aimed at improving Delta’s cleaning practices. The man responsible for all of those initiatives is Bill Lentsch, a 30-year veteran of the airline who is its chief customer experience officer. In an interview, he explained Delta’s approach. Story has excerpts from the conversation.<br/>

China Eastern has opened a new base at Xiamen, as it hints at launching cross-strait flights into Taiwan, among other future international expansion plans. Explaining what it labels a “major strategic decision”, the carrier says the Xiamen base will — among other reasons — “promote the integrated development of both sides of the Taiwan Strait”. It adds that it was the first Mainland Chinese carrier to have operate charter flights between Taiwan and China, and has the most number of cross-straits flights. However, the carrier did not provide a timeline of when it intends to launch flights from its Xiamen base. China Eastern currently has no flights to Taiwan from Xiamen. Cirium schedules data indicates the carrier flies to 13 domestic points from Xiamen, including to its hubs of Kunming, Shanghai Pudong and Shanghai Hongqiao. <br/>