Delta to Cut More Capacity

Delta Air Lines, in a memo issued to its employees and released as a press release on their site, announced it would be making additional cuts due to the current global environment and oil prices once again rising.

Delta will initiate the following cuts, reducing international capacity from 15%, up from 10%, and overall capacity by 10%, up from 6-8%.

• Suspending nonstop service from Atlanta to Seoul and Shanghai, routing passengers through Detroit or Tokyo
• Suspending international service from Cincinatti to London-Gatwick and Frankfurt
• Suspending nonstop service from New York to Edinburgh
• Reducing frequencies to Mexico City from Atlanta and Detroit and postponing some season service to Mexico in light of the H1N! scare.

Delta intends to reassess its staffing needs, but hopes not to furlough any employees. However, this will accelerate their merger efforts, as they may be able to achieve cost-savings by consolidating operations more rapidly.

What this means for us could vary. Less flights means fewer seats, fewer low fares. On the other hand, airlines are lowering prices left and right, and Delta sells seat on a lot of routes at its lower tiers, so ultimately for leisure travelers, it may mean less than frequent ones.