Delta to hire 1,000 pilots
Delta Air Lines plans to hire 1,000 pilots by next summer as it continues to recover from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Last year, Atlanta-based Delta cut more than 1,800 pilots from its payroll through early retirement packages and put about 1,700 junior pilots on inactive status. The cutbacks contributed to staffing issues that led Delta to cancel hundreds of flights around Thanksgiving and Christmas last year. The airline had more staffing challenges over Easter this year.
Delta now has about 12,000 pilots. Operations chief John Laughter told pilots in a memo that the plan for hiring is a "positive indicator" as the airline's recovery accelerates. Domestic leisure travel has rebounded to pre-pandemic levels this month, according to the airline.
Earlier this year, Delta said it planned to have all of the pilots placed on inactive status back at work by fall. And the company has restarted its training of pilots.
Delta said its newly hired pilots will have a chance to start out on larger planes with higher pay.
Home sales fall 0.9% during May
Sales of previously-occupied homes fell for the fourth straight month in May as soaring prices and a limited number of available properties discouraged many would-be buyers.
Existing home sales dropped 0.9% last month from April to a seasonally- adjusted annual rate of 5.8 million units, the National Association of Realtors said Tuesday. The string of sales declines comes after sharp gains last fall and through the winter, as many Americans sought more living space during the pandemic. Sales are up nearly 45% from last May, when purchases fell to their lowest point of the COVID-19 outbreak.
The drop in sales suggests the hot housing market is cooling a bit, even as hiring is steady and the economy is recovering rapidly from the pandemic recession.
The median sales price topped $350,000 last month, the NAR said, a record high.
Fed chairman predicts inflation will abate
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said Tuesday he expects recent price spikes will soon subside and reduce inflation to a sustainable level.
Consumer prices jumped 5% in May compared with a year earlier, the largest increase in 13 years. But Powell said the increase mostly reflected temporary supply bottlenecks, and the fact prices fell sharply last spring at the onset of the pandemic, which make inflation figures now, compared with a year ago, look much larger.
"As these transitory supply effects abate, inflation is expected to drop back toward our longer-run goal," he said in testimony prepared for a congressional oversight panel.
Powell's comments come at a time financial markets are struggling to interpret the Federal Reserve's recent moves. Last week Fed officials signaled that they may increase the central bank's benchmark interest rate twice in 2023, an earlier time frame than they set out in March, when no rate hike was expected until after that year.
Powell also said the Fed had formally begun discussing when and how the central bank might reduce the current $120 billion a month of Treasurys and mortgage-backed bonds the Fed is purchasing each month. Those purchases are intended to keep longer-term interest rates lower to encourage more borrowing and spending.
- Compiled by Dave Flessner