TSA Checkpoint (National)

 Historically, as summer begins to come to an end traveler numbers begin to decrease as well. What is difficult about gathering data for this year is discerning between seasonal traveler declines and pandemic related declines. Though I could just say that the daily average of traveler throughput dropped by 40,000 this week or 5.7%, this data would be misleading. 2019 daily average checkpoint numbers for the comparable week dropped by slightly more, at a 6.7% decrease. This means that though there are currently no signs of airline traffic increasing past 30% of last year at this time, it also isn’t being negatively affected anymore than it already has been.

FAA (July)

While TSA checkpoint traffic stayed relatively level for the month of July, flights in and out of Atlanta certainly did not. According to the FAA website, for the month of July traffic to and from Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport jumped up a staggering 58%. While in the month of June the daily average of planes was 815, July jumped up to 1295 planes per day. This puts the amount of air traffic for the month of July at half of what it was in 2019.

Other large airports (LAX, SLC, JFK) did not receive this massive up tick in traffic that Hartsfield-Jackson did, which is quite surprising, especially considering that passenger traffic did not increase at all through the month of July. One reason for the jump at ATL is that Delta announced at the beginning of July that they would add almost 1,000 flights system wide. A similar jump can be seen in the airports of Florida, suggesting that these new flights were intended for leisure travelers. There isn’t any sort of uptick in any major business hubs in the US.

Delta

Delta announced 1,941 pilot furloughs last week as we approached 1 month until the end of the CARES Act. The company stated that the company may be able to “avoid or reduce” pilot furloughs if the CARES Act is extended, and pilot unions are able to agree on cost reducing agreements.

Delta Stock Jumped 10% last week, with a high of $31.97 and a low of $29.40. One year ago it was averaging $58.00.

In the News

Delta Air Lines to furlough nearly 2,000 pilots in October

Jazmin Goodwin, CNN Business

Delta Air Lines is planning to furlough 1,941 pilots in October as the airline industry struggles to rebound from coronavirus-related fallout.

“We’ve said before that early retirements alone wouldn’t solve the pilot overstaffing situation caused by the Covid-19 pandemic,” said John Laughter, senior vice president of flight operations, in an internal memo to employees. Delta (DAL) provided the memo to CNN Business.

Laughter said the company may be able to “avoid or reduce” the furloughs if cost-reducing agreements are able to be made with their union, and if the CARES Act is extended.

Boeing starts second round of voluntary layoffs – St. Louis Business Journal

Jacob Kirn

Boeing said Monday it will offer a second voluntary layoff package to employees who depart the company.

Workers in the commercial airplanes division, services division and corporate office are affected. Boeing employed more than 14,000 people locally in its defense unit as of June.

Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun told employees Monday that the new action “will extend our overall workforce reductions beyond the initial 10% target and will allow more employees who want to depart the company to do so voluntarily with a pay and benefits package. Importantly, it also will help limit additional involuntary workforce actions.”

In May, Boeing laid off approximately 6,770 employees across the United States, as government health orders meant to slow the spread of Covid-19 have devastated travel demand.