Ed Bastian, CEO of Delta Air Lines, is against the idea of government-mandated COVID-19 negative tests for domestic travelers. he told CNN on Tuesday.
“I think it would be a terrible idea for a lot of reasons,” Bastian told CNN’s Poppy Harlow of the Usually taking into account the Biden administrationwhich was Rejected by other travel industry executives.
Bastian described air travel as the safest means of transport and said the spread of viruses on board aircraft is “absolutely minimal”. Compulsory testing for international flights to the US began last month.
“It won’t make domestic flyers any safer,” Bastian told Harlow. “If anything, it will keep people away from what they have to do to get off, not just for important trips but to get their lives back. I think it would be a terrible decision to take away testing resources from those who really need it. “
Bastian said the US aviation industry, on average, carries and grows more than a million people a day. Requiring mandatory COVID-19 testing for domestic travelers would consume about 10 percent of the testing resources the country needs for sick people.
“It’s hard to get tests,” he said. “There are still days of delay. I think it would be a logistical nightmare. It would set back not just the transportation and travel industries but the entire hospitality sector, hotels, it would probably set us back another year of recovery. “
Delta this week opened a vaccination center at its hub at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in Atlanta for qualified Delta employees in Georgia aged 65 and over. However, Bastian told Harlow it was “far too early” to discuss the employee vaccine mandate recently raised by United Airlines.
“Most of our employees can’t even get the vaccines, we don’t have any supplies,” he said. “We will strongly encourage vaccinations. I know our staff understand the importance of restoring confidence in travel and that vaccination is one of the steps we will take. I think this is a decision to be made later when we go through the history of the vaccination effort. “
Delta is prioritizing the safety of its passengers by blocking the center seats until April 30th. This is the only US airline that does this, the airline Announced Monday.
“We know the middle seat is one of the things that people really appreciate when they make the decision to travel with Delta in the face of a pandemic,” Bastian told Harlow. “It’s expensive, no question about it. Interestingly, in the final fourth quarter, which we reported a few weeks ago, Delta actually averaged more revenue than any of our competitors in the industry – despite the fact that we had 20 percent fewer seats for sale. As a result, health, safety and comfort are important to the people when they travel, and we receive a significant premium for traveling with Delta. “
Harlow asked Bastian if Delta employees would be on leave and found this out Other US airlines have sent vacation warnings to employees.
“We did not take any vacation days during the entire pandemic,” said Bastian. “Our team has done a great job volunteering to take time off. We had a great retirement offer that we made last year, and we have about 20 percent of our people who have chosen to retire. So our team is doing a great job. We’re in no danger of vacationing at Delta. “
Watch them entire CNN interview with Ed Bastian.
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