Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian believes travelers can «fly with confidence» right now.
In a recent appearance on the «Conversations with Mike Milken» podcast, Bastian outlined all of the ways that the airline is working to ensure passenger safety amid the coronavirus pandemic.
«In my opinion, consumers can fly with confidence and safety today,» Bastian told the Milken Institute founder in an interview recorded on May 21 that aired on June 4. «In fact, we are flying currently 45,000 to 50,000 customers a day on our network. We have taken extraordinary measures to improve the overall quality of the experience.»
Like most carriers, Delta is requiring masks, stepping up cleaning efforts and finding ways to keep passengers safely distanced from one another.
On Wednesday, the airline also announced the launch of its first Global Cleanliness division, a new department within Delta’s Customer Experience organization led by Mike Medeiros, vice president – Global Cleanliness, that will be dedicated to innovating and evolving the airline’s cleanliness standards.
«The planes are sanitized. They are fogged before every flight. We have cap[acity] load factors at 60 percent to provide for distance or space onboard our planes, and we’ve made that a hard commitment. We board from the back to the front so people don’t need to worry about passing in front of people. We’ve really adjusted a lot of the amenities and we’re requiring masks on board our planes,» added Bastian.
«We are taking the same measures towards the personal safety of our customers onboard our planes, just as we do the flight safety of the experience. Multi, multi-layers of protection for the safety of the flight and multi, multi-layers of protection for the safety of the customer.»
Bastian pointed to Delta’s cap on load factor as one example of prioritization of customer safety…
