Delta CEO Ed Bastian slams United’s ‘complicated’ new airplane boarding process: ‘Just boarding people’ is fastest

Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian said his company has no plans to implement a new boarding process aimed at saving time on a competing airline.

In an interview with TodayBastian said his airline will not copy United’s new plan to soon allow economy passengers with window seats to board before center and aisle seats.

“We have found that it is simply fastest to let people board and move through the aircraft. Every time you add a new feature, it becomes more complicated,” he said.

He said Delta has “tried to get customers on board in every way possible,” but if United “cracks that nut better, we will certainly copy them.”

United Airlines’ new seat plan, which went into effect on October 26, is called WILMA, which stands for window-middle-aisle. The aim is to save two minutes on the boarding process per flight.

Bastian said his company is prepared for a busy holiday season and expects record-breaking demand and sales

Economy passengers with window seats will board in Group 3, followed by passengers with middle seats in Group 4 and aisle passengers in Group 5, according to a company memo.

First class and business class passengers will experience no change in their boarding process and pre-boarding through Group 3 will also remain the same

Airlines are about to have a busy season, Deloitte’s 2023 holiday survey found that 48 percent of Americans plan to travel during the holidays.

“I expect our fourth quarter to be a record for the company, both in terms of revenue and demand,” says Bastian Yahoo Finance Live.

In 2022, the airline estimated from November 18 to 29, they carried almost 6 million customers, an average of almost 500,000 customers per day.

Delta caused a major backlash in September when it announced plans to limit the number of entries into its lounges and tighten the qualification criteria for customers to earn frequent flyer status.

Bastian admitted that the airline has gone “too far” with the SkyMiles changes and said they will adapt.

“There will be changes that we will make, and you will hear about them in the coming weeks,” Bastian said.

After a year of flight delays and cancellations and plane near misses, the Department of Transport admitted that complaints are almost double what they were a year ago.

Delta sparked a backlash in September when it announced plans to limit the number of entries into its lounges

United Airlines has implemented a new plan called WILMA, which stands for window-middle-aisle. The aim is to save two minutes on the boarding process per flight

The ministry said it received 24,965 complaints about airline service in the first three months of this year, an increase of 88 percent compared to the first quarter of 2022.

Consumers filed a further 6,712 complaints in April, up 32 percent from a year earlier, and 6,465 in May – up 49 percent.

They admitted that consumer complaint data itself has been delayed due to the large number of reports being processed by government agencies.

In addition to flight delays and cancellations, the data also takes into account issues including refund processing, baggage, customer service and oversales.

Complaints related to disabilities, such as slowing down or damaging wheelchairs, have also increased compared to last year.