Deja Vu: Delta Air Lines has cancelled over 200 flights on Christmas Eve and Christmas as the airline is having massive pilot staffing challenges this week. Delta is being forced to cancel hundreds of flights due to not having enough pilots available.

You’ll recall the same thing happened just a few weeks ago for Thanksgiving: Delta Cancelled 300+ Thanksgiving Day Flights Due to Pilot Staffing.

Last month, Delta pilots agreed to a 5% reduction in guaranteed hours per month in order to avoid furloughing up to 1,700 pilots. Well 76% of pilots were in favor of this, the remainder opposed this and I can’t help but wonder if the pilot staffing issues arose from Delta pilots calling out sick in spite of the reduction of flying.

Looking in deeper at the cancellations, Delta cancelled 74 mainline flights on Christmas Eve, and 139 mainline flights on Christmas for a total of 213 departures over the busiest holiday travel period this year.

It appears that cancellations today are minimal with only 5 Delta mainline today, so hopefully the worst of the cancellations are behind us.

With Delta’s Thanksgiving cancellations, if you were on a cancelled flight, reports from SkyMiles members is that they were proactively offered a $100 voucher for the inconvenience, so it’s likely that Delta will offer the same compensation for those affected by the Christmas cancellations.

What are your thoughts on Delta’s Christmas meltdown cancelling over 200 flights, just a few weeks after its Thanksgiving meltdown. 

Hat Tip: View from the Wing