Delta Air Lines is Experiencing a Nationwide Fruit Juice Shortage… Passengers Told to Go Without Until Further Notice

Delta Air Lines is suffering a nationwide fruit juice shortage, with passengers warned that they might go without familiar favorites like orange and cranberry juice while the Atlanta-based carrier resolves the ‘temporary supply chain issues.’

The reason for the shortage remains a bit of a mystery. Despite multiple flight attendants and passengers reporting ongoing issues over the last few days, Delta wasn’t able to confirm how bad the shortage was or how long it might take to resolve.

A selection of fruit juices should be part of the standard and complimentary in-flight service in all cabins on the majority of Delta flights, although the airline did recently expand the number of shorter flights that go without any in-flight service due to time constraints.

As to whether you’ll miss out on a juice selection on your next Delta flight, that is a bit hit and miss. Some flights are departing with a limited stock quantity, so flight attendants are expected to ration this to First Class.

Some flights are departing with very little juice, while others have plenty of stock, and it’s business as usual.

Delta uses Minute Maid as its in-flight juice experience, which makes sense as the brand is owned by Coca-Cola, which shares Atlanta as its hometown. The standard selection available on most flights is orange juice, apple juice, cranberry juice, and tomato juice.

Other Coca-Cola products remain available on Delta flights during the juice shortage, including popular sodas, as well as the decidedly less popular Dasani water brand.

Thankfully, for now at least, the shortage is only affecting Delta domestic flights, so if you have a long-haul international flight, this shouldn’t be an issue. Whether Delta looks elsewhere for an alternative supplier is also to be confirmed.

In these kinds of circumstances, it’s not unusual for international airlines to get hold of alternative supplies from far-flung corners of the world that they fly to. You might get orange juice supplied from Spain, alongside a totally different brand of cranberry juice from Italy, and tomato juice from Australia.

The same even goes for bottled water, with airlines leaning heavily on their international catering suppliers to make up shortfalls within their domestic supply chain.