Delta cuts 100 flights per day to minimize disruptions

• The flight reduction by Delta represents about 2% of the airlines’ departures

Delta Air Lines (NYSE: DAL) said on Thursday it is reducing about 100 flights a day from July 1 through August 7, to minimize disruptions in a high demand environment.

As people around the world opt to travel again after two years into the pandemic, travel demand has increased sharply. The flight reduction by Delta in the summer season represents about 2% of the airlines’ departures.

“More than any time in our history, the various factors currently impacting our operation – weather and air traffic control, vendor staffing, increased COVID case rates contributing to higher-than-planned unscheduled absences in some work groups – are resulting in an operation that isn’t consistently up to the standards Delta has set for the industry in recent years,” Delta’s chief customer experience officer, Allison Ausband, wrote in a note on the airline’s website Thursday.