Delta Air Lines canceled about 100 flights on Sunday due to staff shortages and also made available a few average seats a month earlier than expected to carry more passengers.
The airline said it has served more than a million passengers in recent days, the highest number since the coronavirus pandemic began last year.
“We apologize to our customers for the inconvenience and most have already been rescheduled to travel on the same day,” the airline said in a statement.
Delta has implemented measures to increase the capacity of its flights, including the provision of seats on Sundays and Mondays, in an attempt to accommodate more passengers.
The airline announced on Wednesday that it will stop blocking the sale of central seats starting in May. The move was taken in April last year to maintain a greater distance between passengers, an action that the company’s CEO reiterated was a factor in increasing confidence in the airline. The seats will be made available to the public again at a time when people are flying again and more people are being vaccinated against COVID-19, the company said.
Delta said the central seats will only be open on Sunday and Monday, and its measure to block places for sale remains in place. Where necessary, seats may be filled in order to take passengers to their destination on the same day.
“Delta teams have been working on a number of factors, including staffing issues, a large number of vaccinations among employees and the fact that pilots are returning to work,” the airline said in a statement. Some of the employees had side effects due to the vaccine.
Websites in three Delta hubs showed 33 canceled flights on Sunday. There were 19 at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, 11 at Detroit Metropolitan Airport and three more at Minneapolis-St. Paul.
The company said on Wednesday that nearly 65% of people who flew with it last year expect to have received at least one dose of the new vaccines by May 1st. This gave Delta security to end place limits, he said.