A growing shortage of pilots and cabin crew is weighing on the financial results of major US airlines. This is evident from the figures that Delta Air Lines announced on Friday and American Airlines on Thursday.
During the pandemic, airlines like Delta and American laid off many people. Now that Americans want to travel en masse again, aviation must make a lot of effort to retain current employees and recruit new people.
The pilot shortage also affects smaller airlines in the US. With their regional flights, they provide the supply of passengers for the longer, international flights of Delta and American, among others.
Delta Air Lines reported on Friday that personnel costs rose 3 to 4 percent in the current first quarter. The company, partner and shareholder of Air France-KLM, offers its pilots a pay increase of 34 percent, according to Reuters news agency. In addition to the higher wage costs, airlines also spend a lot more money on fuel.
That negative outlook depressed Delta Air Lines’ share price Friday. Analysts had expected a better outlook for the first months of 2023. Halfway through the trading day, the Delta share was 7 percent lower than Thursday.
In 2022, Delta achieved a turnover of 50.6 billion dollars (46.7 billion euros). That was 8 percent more than in 2019, the last year before the corona crisis that virtually shut down aviation. Last year’s profit was $1.3 billion (2019: $4.8 billion).
Delta is the first major airline to publish annual figures. Air France-KLM will publish the results on February 17.
American Airlines on Thursday gave a preview of the final figures that it will publish at the end of January. In the fourth quarter of 2022, the company recorded more than 16 percent more turnover than in the same quarter in 2019.
Like Delta, American also expects demand for tickets to continue in the coming months. However, investors fear that some airlines will stunt because of this positive outlook and significantly increase the number of flights. Good news for the passenger, because now the high demand and the low number of flights keep the ticket price high. Less pleasant news if you are an investor in aviation. In any case, the Air France-KLM share benefited from the positive news from American Airlines on Friday. Air France-KLM rose 7 percent.
A version of this article also appeared in the January 14, 2023 newspaper
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