Special: Burning cash, accepting turbulence w/Delta CEO Ed Bastian

A surprisingly candid and upbeat interview on the industry hardest hit by the pandemic. Delta saw seat-bookings fall to less than 5% of normal, had 40,000 employees go on unpaid leave, and raised $14 billion in funding – all to withstand a cash burn that still stands at $30 million dollars a day. To rebuild traveler trust, Delta CEO Ed Bastian has enacted a slew of new safety standards, including capping flight loads at 60 percent and using hospital-grade HEPA filters on board. Bastian contends there's not a safer time to be on a plane than right now. He's also sped up forward-facing company initiatives, like phasing out less-efficient planes, building out airport terminals, and installing better wifi. Bastian acknowledges there will be fewer planes in the sky in years to come, but he believes Delta will come out of the pandemic as strong and essential as ever.

Om Podcasten

Award-winning business advice from Silicon Valley and beyond. Iconic CEOs, from Nike to Netflix, Starbucks to Slack, share the strategies that helped them grow from startups into global brands — and to weather crisis when it strikes. On each episode of our classic format, founding host Reid Hoffman — LinkedIn cofounder, Greylock partner and legendary Silicon Valley investor — and a stellar lineup of guest hosts prove unconventional theories about how businesses scale. Guests share their stories of entrepreneurship, leadership, strategy, management, fundraising. You’ll hear the human journey, too — failures, setbacks, learnings. From our Rapid Response format, you can expect real-time wisdom from business leaders in fast-changing situations. Hosted by Bob Safian, past editor-in-chief of Fast Company, these episodes tackle crisis response, rebuilding, diversity & inclusion, leadership change and much more.