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Delta Air Lines has agreed to delay the decision to furlough close to 2,000 pilots until Nov. 1, giving more time to negotiate cost-cutting measures with the pilots’ union and more clarity on whether carriers will get additional federal coronavirus aid. Delta had planned to furlough more than 1,900 of its roughly 13,000 pilots as early as Oct. 1, when the terms of $25b in federal payroll support that prohibits airline industry job cuts expires. Delta has largely avoided furloughs of its staff after thousands took buyouts and leaves of absence and the company reduced many workers’ schedules. “This move will provide time as we continue to lobby for a clean extension of the CARES Act and the Payroll Support Program and resume our negotiations with Delta,” the union, the Air Line Pilots Association, said Tuesday. Delta shared a proposal that could avoid furloughs with the union last week. “While we’re also watching the progress of the possible CARES Act extension, it is important that we reach an agreement now that spreads the work of approximately 12,000 active pilots across a network schedule that in Summer 2021 only requires about 9,500 pilots to fly it,” said Delta’s senior VP of flight operations, John Laughter wrote Tuesday in a memo to pilots. “The recovery won’t be over in six months, so sharing the available work is the only way to avoid furloughs altogether.” Delta and the pilots union reached a tentative agreement last week to reduce the furloughs by 220 pilots for a total of 1,721 and some of the pilots have opted for early retirement packages.<br/>

Delta is expecting a “two-year journey” before its operation resembles its pre-pandemic structure, CEO Ed Bastian said Tuesday, though to get there, the airline may need to rely less on business customers than before. “I don’t think it is a five-year journey,” Bastian said. “I do think a portion of business travel is going to be lost for good because of video tools we have all been forced to learn how to use. That’s OK. That is travel that isn’t resilient. That isn’t sustainable.” Like many US airlines, Delta has shrunk, retiring and temporarily parking airplanes, asking employees to leave, and slashing its flight schedule. Delta is operating about half its originally planned domestic schedule, Bastian said, and carrying 30-35% of its normal passenger volume. International demand is worse, because many countries have closed borders to Americans. This may remain the status quo for the foreseeable future, Bastian said, though airlines could further cut schedules if the US government does not extend state aid past Oct. 1, when it is slated to run out. Bastian said he supports more government assistance. Long term, he said, the US airline industry will be fine. Over the past decade, consumers showed a near insatiable desire to travel, and airlines added aircraft and routes to accommodate them. Bastian said he expects those customers to return — with gusto – when they believe it safe. Longer term, Bastian said he’s not know when business travel will fully (or near fully) return. But he suggested it may have more to do as much with how governments attack the virus than anything else. “This is based on the science,” he said. “This is based on our ability as a society and as the world to contain the virus. The better job we do, the more opportunity there will be for people to start to restore some sort of normal activity back into their daily lives, including travel.”<br/>

If you could book a seat on a flight where you were guaranteed not to catch coronavirus, would you do it? Alitalia is an airline betting that the answer to that question is "yes." The Italian national carrier has announced that it will trial flights between Rome and Milan where every single passenger has to confirm that they have tested negative for the virus. These flights are identified as "Covid-tested." There are two ways to do that: by getting tested within 72 hours of flying and bringing a negative certificate to the airport, or by getting a negative result of a rapid antigen test at the airport's Covid testing facility. These flights will have a dedicated security line for extra safety.<br/>And the test alone isn't enough for a boarding pass: "Before boarding, a Ministry of Maritime, Air and Border Health (USMAF) doctor will check the validity of the certificate already held by passengers," Alitalia explained in a statement. Right now, this testing procedure isn't significantly different from what many airlines are doing around the world. But labeling the flight "Covid-tested" could provide much-appreciated peace of mind to travelers who are antsy about boarding a plane amid a pandemic.<br/>