Delta Air Lines canceled about 100 flights on Sunday due to understaffing, and also made some center seats available a month earlier than expected with the aim of carrying more passengers.
The airline noted that it has served more than a million travelers in recent days, the highest number since before the coronavirus pandemic started last year.
“We apologize to our customers for the inconvenience, and most have already moved to travel the same day,” the airline said in a statement.
Delta has taken steps to increase the capacity of its flights, including making center seats available on Sundays and Mondays in an effort to accommodate more passengers.
The airline announced on Wednesday that it would no longer block the sale of center seats from May. The measure was taken in April last year to maintain a greater distance between passengers, a move repeated by the company’s CEO was instrumental in building 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 center seats would only be open on Sundays and Mondays and that the measure to block seats for sale remains in effect. If necessary, seats could be filled with the aim of getting passengers to their destination the same day.
“Delta teams have been working amid a variety of factors, including staffing problems, high numbers of employee vaccinations and pilots returning to work,” the airline said in a statement. Some workers had adverse side effects from the vaccine.
Websites at 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 1. That gave Delta the assurance to end seat restrictions, he noted.