Delta Air Lines is finally coming out from under one of the worst airline meltdowns that we’ve seen. Over five days they cancelled more flights than in all of 2018 and 2019 combined. Planes have been out of position. They lost track of crew. Customers couldn’t reach the airline. Hundreds of thousands of people had their plans ruined.
Where was Ed?
The most dangerous place in Atlanta is usually between Delta CEO Ed Bastian and any tv camera. But he wasn’t giving interviews. He wasn’t out talking to employees or customers. He wasn’t even taking responsibility for the mess – days after all the other airlines recovered from the CrowdStrike outage, he was blaming CrowdStrike and not his own carrier’s IT mess that followed, that their own staff couldn’t recover from.
Instead he left the country while passengers were still stranded and employees struggled to get things moving again. This was first reported by ATX Jetsetter. According to airline sources, he and his girlfriend took flight 84 from Atlanta to Paris on Tuesday night. The airline confirms his trip, telling me:
Ed delayed this long-planned business trip until he was confident the airline was firmly on the path to recovery. As of Wednesday morning, Delta’s operations were returning to normal. Ed remains fully engaged with senior operations leaders.
A spokesperson contends that as a Team USA sponsor, it was important for Delta’s CEO to meet with leaders and business partners in Paris. He couldn’t have sent someone else? It was more important than to be with his team on the ground helping each other and customers?
It wouldn’t be the first time that Bastian prioritized his travels over company priorities.
Estimates are the last five days cost Delta $500 million. That’s less profit-sharing for employees. Bastian needs to be out boosting employee morale, to protect the airline culture and also to fend off flight attendant unionization efforts. Sara Nelson’s AFA smells blood and sees the airline’s failures this week, which have been tough on cabin crew, as a window to crawl through. Letting AFA-CWA look like they care while top management is in Paris for the Olympics seems dangerous for the future of the company.
WOW! All this time I thought DL was the premier U.S. airline. Now they are down there with AA. Our airlines are a total embarrassment. They are all substandard and they don’t even compare to the LOWEST of any of the foreign carriers.
Believe me, BA and AF aren’t much better.
Tim Dunn loves giving Delta the Hawk Tuah
I’m not sure who Tim Dunn is and the back and forth with him but isn’t the point here not what UA or AA did but the fact that Delta claims to be a cut above? “Premium” or “luxury” are terms Delta has used and in fact bases higher fares on these claims. Nothing about Delta’s response came close to a customer service experience of brands in the premium or luxury space. Not sure how anyone can defend Delta’s response.
Ed Bastian really wanted a new nickname so lets all start calling him Fled Ed.
D(delusional)
E(ed)
L(lacks)
T(tack)
A(always)
Remember the old slogan: delta : don’t ever leave the airport.
Haha couldn’t have happen to a subpar airline that is completely delusional!
Lol airline sources talking about his girlfriend?
One of your sources is full of crap and you’re publishing that crap on your website! Today’s the day that I realize that Gary doesn’t fact check….
Try Googling ‘Ed Bastian’ and ‘gay’, and let me know how many pictures of his girlfriend you find. Or you could try knowing him in literally the most basic way possible and…