219 Delta Cancellations Put Delta Airlines Canceling Flights Under Pressure
219 cancellations on Saturday put delta airlines canceling flights at the center of Delta Air Lines’ weekend disruption, after an internal memo said fewer pilots were taking extra flights. The carrier also canceled 128 flights on Sunday, leaving travelers facing a second straight day of cuts and a Monday count that still stood at 29.
Ryan Gumm's pilot memo
37% last year was Delta’s acceptance rate for extra flights; 2% this year was the new pace cited internally. Ryan Gumm, Delta’s Senior Vice President of Flight Operations, wrote that “23.M.7, never intended for consistent daily operations, is now being used 10 to 15 times more than last year.”
7% of Delta’s total flights were canceled on Saturday, a share far above Southwest Airlines, American Airlines, and United Airlines, each of which canceled less than 1% of flights that day. JetBlue, Southwest Airlines, and American Airlines had heavier flight capacity in Florida and had nowhere near Delta’s number of cancellations.
Florida weather and ground stops
Scattered thundershowers over Central Florida and some ground stops were part of Delta’s explanation for the weekend disruption, and a post attributed to JonNYC noted that internally DL was placing some of the blame there. That weather note did not narrow the operational strain enough to keep Delta from posting 219 cancellations on Saturday, then 128 on Sunday.
More than a third of Delta mainline cancellations are now on more than a third of flights, up by 7% compared with last year, which adds a second layer to the weekend numbers. Delta had also been cutting in-flight service on hundreds of flights, so the weekend schedule crunch arrived while the carrier was already trimming operations elsewhere.
Delta's weekend capacity problem
10 to 15 times more than last year is how often 23.M.7 is now being used, according to Gumm’s memo, a sign that Delta is leaning harder on a tool that was not built for everyday use. Spirit Airlines posted more cancellations than Delta during the weekend only because Spirit shut down at 3 a.m. on Saturday and canceled all of its upcoming flights.
29 cancellations on Monday showed the disruption had not fully cleared by the start of the new week, even after the heaviest weekend cuts were over. For passengers booked on Delta, the key issue now is whether the carrier can restore normal staffing and scheduling before the next wave of peak-demand flying reaches the system.
