Delta Offers Buyouts to Half Its Workforce
Mar 18th, 2008 | By Jared BlankHow bad is the fuel situation? Delta just announced that it will offer buyouts to 30,000 staff, or roughly half its workforce, and shrink domestic capacity by an additional 5% this year. They hope to layoff about 2,000 people through this program.
This week they’ve already announced that they’re discontinuing service to a number of cities (including Islip, Atlantic City, and Bellingham, WA) that were being served by expensive to operate regional jets (has any aircraft seen its fortunes fall faster than the regional jet? Airlines couldn’t get enough of them in the 90s, but then quickly realized that they were way too expensive to operate…something that frequently-quoted-airline-commentator Michael Boyd has been saying for a while. Bravo).
In any case, this will not be the only airline to significantly shrink their workforces this year. The ugly has only just begun.