LAX bracing for 11 busy days around Thanksgiving holiday
If you were a passenger on the Delta Air Lines flight on Thanksgiving, you will know that this is a special day for the company.
It’s a day to celebrate the company and the hard work it’s done to grow and expand its operations and to ensure that its passengers and employees can enjoy the best service and value in the airline industry.
But that doesn’t mean that all Delta employees are sitting in a circle around a table, singing Kumbaya and shaking hands in gratitude as the plane’s engines roar to life.
The Delta Airlines system had more than 15,000 employees in 2012, and the number of employees has increased steadily. Delta is now recognized as one of the nation’s largest employers, with more than 200,038 employees, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
This is just one of many challenges of operating a global airline, and a few days around the Thanksgiving holiday can prove to be an especially busy time.
According to a recent release, Delta Airlines now expects to use 11 days for operations — 7 straight days — for Thanksgiving. So much for the holiday being one of the busiest days for the company.
Over the past three years, Delta took away six days of annual leave for employees, and they are now limited to four weeks of annual leave a year. That means that Delta will be sending its employees to work an extra eight days before they can take time off without having to pay time off.
In 2012, Delta was able to get its operations back on track and increase capacity with a little help from its competitors — JetBlue and Southwest Airlines.
The company was able to fly 2.9 million customers last Thanksgiving, compared to 1.8 million in 2011.
Delta has also been working to meet a higher operational demand during the busiest days of the year, like during the Thanksgiving holiday.
Delta’s recent announcement of what to expect has caused a bit of a stir among employees. In a statement, the company said it is expecting that over 11 days around Thanksgiving period, passengers will use up a total of 1.4 million seats