MORE THAN 2,500 DELTA AIR PILOTS MAY BE PUT ON FURLOUGH

More than 2,500 of 14,000 Delta Air pilots may have to be placed on furlough, CNBC's Leslie Josephs reported on Friday.

Around 7,900 pilots will reportedly be eligible to take an early retirement package, but "early retirements alone likely won't be enough to avoid pilot furloughs altogether," John Laughter, Delta’s senior vice president of flight operations, said in an internal memo, according to the CNBC report. Laughter reportedly said Delta has too many pilots given the low level of demand for flights in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, Mark Matousek reported for Business Insider on June 28, 2020.

"Given that we won't know the results of the early-out for a few weeks, we must continue to move ahead to address pilot overstaffing," he said, according to CNBC.

American Airlines and United Airlines also encouraged employees to take unpaid leaves of absence earlier this month. Airlines have taken a major hit in recent months as the coronavirus has discouraged travel. The International Air Transportation Association (IATA) predicted earlier this month that the global airline industry's revenue will fall this year to about 50% of its 2019 level. "Financially, 2020 will go down as the worst year in the history of aviation," Alexandre de Juniac, IATA's director general, said at the time.