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Delta Airlines<\/a> CEO Ed Bastian has endured many business challenges since joining the company 25 years ago\u2014from bankruptcy and job cuts to the COVID-19<\/a> pandemic. The latter impacted him in a personal way, too. Bastians\u2019s mother died in February 2020, which he says was likely from the COVID-19 virus<\/a>.<\/p>\n Bastian, who called his mother his personal hero, wondered what could possibly come next.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe thought our lives were never going to return to what we had,\u201d Bastian told Fortune\u2019s <\/em>editor-in-chief Alyson Shontell at South by Southwest<\/a>\u2019s annual conference, regarding the pandemic<\/a>.<\/p>\n But after taking some time to grieve the loss<\/a> of his mother and wrapping his head around the major changes that were going to occur globally, Bastian says the early days of the pandemic<\/a> also showed him how important it is to lead during difficult moments.<\/p>\n \u201cThis was actually the most important time to lead in history. For our company, and candidly, for our world,\u201d Bastian says.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI appreciated that it was a privilege to lead, it was not a burden. And that gave me strength every single morning<\/a> to get up and to go lead and put that brave face on.\u201d<\/p>\n In 2020, Delta hired the Mayo Clinic<\/a> to advise on cleaning protocols, ventilation practices, and in-air social distancing. Then in 2021, the airline created the chief health officer<\/a> role\u2014the first of its kind\u2014and Bastian personally brought on Henry Ting<\/a>, whose job was to simply protect employees and passengers.\u00a0<\/p>\n Under Ting\u2019s leadership, Delta implemented science-backed protocols with the Delta CareStandard<\/a>, which still includes frequent wipe-downs of surfaces both in airports and on board, disinfection procedures that have been certified by Lysol, and readily available hand sanitizer dispensers. HEPA air filters on board Delta flights also work to remove 99.99% of particles, including viruses.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n From April 2020 to April 2021, Delta also blocked the purchase and use of middle seats to facilitate social-distancing on board. Many of the COVID-19 safety protocols Delta implemented, as well as their transparency regarding the protocols, paved the way for other airlines.<\/p>\n \u201cI think everyone in this environment needs to ensure they\u2019re staying very, very close to their people, they\u2019re communicating, that there\u2019s a level of transparency about what\u2019s happening, and never more so than their travel experience,\u201d Bastian told the Harvard Business Review<\/em> in 2022.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s never more important to be visible and let people know what you know and what you don\u2019t know. We tell people what we need them to know and do, and when they ask us, we give them our very, very best insight as to how we see the future and what\u2019s happening around and why we do make some of the decisions that we\u2019ve had,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Bastian didn\u2019t downplay the weight of being a leader, though. He says it\u2019s definitely hard, and there are times you may not feel like being at the helm, but having an unrelenting commitment to succeed<\/a> and seeing the fruits of your labor makes it worth it.<\/p>\n Despite the pandemic\u2019s<\/a> harsh impact on the travel industry<\/a> (among many others), Bastian remembered Delta\u2019s business model, which he says is \u201cto bring the world together, not to separate.\u201d That pushed them to continue working toward business goals<\/a>, no matter how dismal everything seemed at the time.<\/p>\n \u201cThe world needed to be together, so that\u2019s why I knew we were going to get there,\u201d he says. That doesn\u2019t mean it came easy.<\/p>\n The COVID-19<\/a> pandemic led to Delta\u2019s revenue plummeting<\/a>, down 66% in 2020 from the year prior. Before that, Delta experienced continued revenue growth between 2003 and 2019. Now, Delta Air Lines<\/a> is the most profitable airline<\/a> in the world, with almost $50.6 billion<\/a> in operating revenue in 2022.\u00a0<\/p>\n Delta emphasizes the impact their employees have on the success of the company. Just last month, Delta paid out $1.4 billion<\/a> in profit sharing to employees, equal to about 10% of their annual pay.\u00a0<\/p>\n Per the Delta website<\/a>, their strong 2023 earning and profit-sharing payout \u201care the direct result of the exceptional work and commitment of Delta\u2019s people throughout a challenging operational year.\u201d<\/p>\n Bastian also mentioned the pride he has in Delta employees during his SXSW interview. Despite many companies performing mass layoffs during the pandemic<\/a>, he says Delta didn\u2019t lay off a single employee.<\/p>\n \u201cI think that was our biggest statement of who we are,\u201d Bastian says.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n