Delta Air Lines has reported a significant loss of 408 million dollars in its final quarter of 2021, thanks to the resurgence of Covid-19.
The recent surge in the cases of Covid-19 bummed the airline in the last quarter particularly in December of 2021 which made the airline suffer almost one-quarter of its expected sales.
CEO Ed Bastian stated on Thursday that “8000 employees have contracted covid-19 over the last four weeks.”
The resurgence of infections, sick employees along the winter storms across the country led to the cancelation of over 2200 flights since Christmas Eve.
Even though the cancelation rate has dropped in the last few days, the damage has been done and this spike in cancelation in the holiday season cost the airline over $75 million loss.
The latest outbreak of Covid-19 powered by the fast-spreading omicron variant has pushed back the air industry to the harrowing shadows of uncertainty. The industry was well into its recovery phase for the past two months.
“I don’t think we’re going to see a pickup in bookings or travel during January and probably the first part of February,” Bastian said in an interview. “It’s always the weakest part of the year, and it’s going to be that much weaker because of the omicron. We need confidence in travel returning once the virus recedes.”
The Delta Air Lines has announced that it is expecting the omicron led infections to start declining in America in the upcoming days, following the same suit as it did in South Africa and relatively slower down the cases percentage in the UK.
The travel industry which was in its revival has been thrown back to the pandemic beginning days.
According to the latest data, the number of people flying across America was 20% less in January 2022 as compared to January of 2019. Delta Air Lines is expecting a further loss in terms of revenue in the upcoming months of January and February. The whole first quarter of 2022 is expected to remain sluggish.
