Delta eyes blue skies
Ahead of the resumption of holidays to the US from November 8, Ian Taylor talks to Delta Air Lines international sales managing director Shane Spyak
I
t has been a long haul for Delta Air Lines and every other transatlantic carrier since the US border closed in
March 2020. After all that time, the mid-
October announcement of the reopening to vaccinated travellers from November 8 “was a little sudden”, says Shane Spyak, Delta Air Lines managing director for international sales, noting: “It’s complicated to respond super-quickly this time of year.” But most of Delta’s US-UK winter
schedule is already operating, Spyak says, adding: “We’re already flying from London into New York JFK 10 times a week and that is going to twice a day in December. We’re in Atlanta daily, Detroit three times a week and four a week in November, and we’re adding a three-times-a- week Boston service in November. “Those are our key hubs
10 28 OCTOBER 2021
which connect to more than 200 destinations beyond, and for next summer our 2019 schedule will be almost fully restored from London.” Delta continued to fly to and
from Heathrow through “all but six weeks” of the pandemic, for a time “operating cargo-only services to get PPE, medical supplies and vaccines to where they needed to go”. Since then, Delta, like other US
carriers, has seen domestic US flying bounce back strongly and return near to 2019 levels. Spyak reports: “We recovered to 2019 levels this summer, led by leisure. People were eager to travel. We saw them opting for more outdoor locations, mountains and national parks, and modified our network accordingly. It helped us achieve a first profitable month in June and turn a profit for the third quarter.” He notes: “It’s a little different
on the corporate side, which is only 14
Weekly Heathrow-JFK flights from December
44% recovered. Over 95% of our corporate customers are travelling at some level, [but] they’re obviously travelling less.” Spyak suggests “things will be
different” in the corporate sector, saying: “It’s tough to imagine we won’t use Zoom or Teams where that makes sense.” But he adds: “There are many cases where virtual interactions enable travel.” Fares have recovered along with
demand. He explains: “As things ramp up, fuel prices are going up and there is a lot of demand for relatively limited seats. So there is upward pressure on fares. But fares are rebounding to where they were
pre-pandemic, not going up from where they were before.” Capacity remains somewhat
constrained. Having parked hundreds of aircraft and retired 200-plus more, Spyak says Delta has “taken a conservative approach and been careful to match the supply of seats with demand”. On transatlantic services, he adds:
“We only recently got clarity so there was uncertainty about November and December. But we saw a 60% increase in bookings after the announcement.” He advises: “If you’re considering
travel, book early because we’re going to see full airplanes in the summer.”
Premium rebound Delta has moved back into Heathrow Terminal 3 alongside Virgin Atlantic following the terminal’s reopening, and Spyak notes: “For the first time we have Air France-KLM also in T3
travelweekly.co.uk
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