U.S. airline capping capacity to focus on customer safety
Two months after Delta Air Lines resumed flights between London and Atlanta, the carrier has today (August 3, 2020) restarted a daily service on the world’s number one travel market – London Heathrow to New York-JFK.
The U.S. airline remains the only one offering nonstop service between the U.K. and the United States that is keeping middle seats blocked and capping capacity throughout the aircraft on all routes until September 30, 2020, to help protect the health and safety of its customers and crew. Seat blocks will be automatically implemented to prevent the adjacent seat being booked once a reservation is complete and seats are chosen. Parties of three or more will be able to book seats together, including middle seats.
“We know how important it is for our customers to feel safe when they fly. It’s always our number one priority and even more so during this time,” said Roberto Ioriatti, Delta’s Vice President Transatlantic. “This is why, as we add more routes between London and the U.S., we’re continuing to limit the number of people per aircraft. We are also offering additional flexibility with tickets so customers have extra peace of mind should they need it.”
As part of its COVID-19 health and safety measures, Delta requires employees and customers to wear a face mask or appropriate covering when travelling. The airline also has enhanced booking flexibility in place on flights purchased until August 31, 2020, to provide reassurance to customers should they need to amend their plans. Changing an existing booking is easy via the “My trips” area on delta.com.
Furthermore, the airline has introduced the Delta CareStandard its commitment to a superior level of cleanliness, more space and safer service designed to ensure customers can travel with confidence. As part of this, the airline has founded a Global Cleanliness Division dedicated to innovating and evolving its already-high cleanliness standards to ensure a consistently safe and sanitized experience across its facilities and aircraft for employees and customers, alike. Customers travelling between London and the United States will see these measures on their next flight. They include:
- Sanitizing the aircraft before every flight
- State-of-the-art air circulation systems with HEPA filters that extract more than 99.99% of fine particles in the air, including viruses and bacteria, on all trans-Atlantic flights (and mostly across Delta’s network).
- Boarding flights?from back-to-front – reducing the instances of customers needing to pass by one another
- Temporarily streamlining onboard food and beverage service
- Providing supplies directly to customers when available,?including?hand sanitizers in wellness kit
Delta’s London Heathrow-New York-JFK service will operate as follows:
| Flight | Departs | Arrives |
| DL2 | London Heathrow at 10:20 | New York-JFK at 13:30 |
| DL1 | New York-JFK at 19:30 | London Heathrow at 07:45 (next day) |
LONDON, August 3, 2020
