Skift Take
More and more airlines are taking back the middle seat and while it makes good business sense, do they risk losing customers who might interpret it as greed or an affront to their health?
In an effort to give customers peace of mind, Delta Air Lines is extending blocking middle seats in coach, blocking aisle seats on planes without middle seats, and blocking adjacent seats in first class through the end of April, the airline announced this week.
The announcement, which follows a dismal fourth quarter and comes despite losing the added revenue those empty seats provide, sets Atlanta-based Delta as the only U.S airline still offering passengers inflight social distancing options nearly a year after the pandemic decimated air travel as we knew it.
What does Delta get out of this strategy?
“We want our customers to have complete confidence when traveling with Delta, and they continue to tell us that more space provides more peace of mind,” said Bill Lentsch, Delta's chief customer experience officer. “We’ll continue to reassess seat blocking in relation to case transmission and vaccination rates, while bringing back products and services in ways that instill trust in the health and safety of everyone on board — that will always be Delta’s priority.”
Still, Delta is sacrificing a significant amount of potential revenue by blocking middle seats. Doing so amounts to selling only two-thirds of available economy-class seats, which may not be an issue now, as fewer people are flying than in 2019, but it could prove a disadvantage as travel demand ramps back up.
