ATLANTA — About 200 Delta pilots staged a protest at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson Airport on Thursday, saying the company's scheduling practices were leaving them overworked and fatigued.
The off-duty pilots picketed with signs reading "fatiguing schedules = poor reliability."
One pilot, Evan Baach with the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) union, told 11Alive's Dalia Perez the protest was about getting Delta to acknowledge there's a problem.
"Today hundreds of Delta pilots showed up to the airport in Atlanta, on their off time, to send a message to management. And the message we sent was very clear: Our pilots are tired and fatigued, frankly, and we want the company to meet with us to find common sense solutions to our staffing issues," Baach said. "We're concerned that the staffing on the pilot side is just inadequate. We're picking up and working record amounts of overtime, we're working longer days and it's just unfair to the Delta customers and Delta pilots."
11Alive reached out to Delta for comment on the pilots' protest, but did not receive back a response.
A release from ALPA said negotiations between the pilots and Delta are ongoing for a new contract, and that they are "proposing solutions to scheduling issues as part of these negotiations" but wanted to see changes now with spring break and the summer travel season approaching.
"In many cases, pilots are flying long after their day or trip was supposed to end," Capt. Jason Ambrosi, another Delta pilot and union leader, said in a statement. "Delta cannot continue to operate the schedule at redline with no room for error.”