Delta CEO: International Travel Going Forward Will Need Regulation

Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian, appearing with Maria Bartiromo on her Fox Business Channel show, said it will take a collaborative effort of regulations to encourage more international travel.

Bastian said the Atlanta-based carrier is working with not only the Federal Aviation Administration but also with its European counterpart as well as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to make international travel appealing again in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.

“The main thing that’s affecting international travel are the quarantines as well as the restrictions on U.S. travelers, even getting into Europe,” Bastian told “Mornings with Maria.” “It’s not as if there’s going to be a green light that goes off and we’re all back traveling internationally. We’re going to have to put some pilots in place, some experimental routes, using testing. Testing will be the key to opening up international flows, without a quarantine requirement.”

Delta lost $5.4 billion in the third quarter and said it will continue to have a daily cash bleed through the winter and into the spring due to the ramifications of the virus.

“This winter is going to be very difficult, in any case, to get international traffic going,” Bastian said. “I think next summer you’re going to see people traveling internationally again, but I think it will take a couple of years before we see anywhere close to what we used to see in international business.”

He also does not expect business travel – a consistent part of any airline’s revenue – to bounce back.

“Business revenues should represent close to half of our overall business. Right now it’s significantly lower than that,” Bastian said. “Business travel has always come back faster than anything we expect. It goes down harder as businesses cut it first, and it comes back faster than anyone is expecting. I don’t know that it will get back to 100%, but I do think we’ll get back to a meaningful level.”