delta airlinesThe airline is on track to meet its profit targets this year by passing on higher fuel costs to customers, and pricing power CEO Ed Bastian expects pricing power to remain even as oil prices fall from multi-year highs.
“I think it’s sustainable,” Bastian said in an interview with CNBC. He said fares are likely to remain strong thanks to strong demand, more diverse seating options and a more disciplined airline industry that has learned from the past, and is unlikely to expand capacity anytime soon even if oil prices fall.
Delta Air Lines on Friday expected third-quarter earnings per share of $2.00 to $2.50, compared with analysts’ expectations of $2.02 per share for the same period. The company also predicted that revenue would increase by a mid-tenth compared to the July-September period of 2025. For the full year, the airline reaffirmed its forecast for January earnings per share of between $6.50 and $7.50.
Below is a comparison of what Delta Air Lines reported in its second quarter to Wall Street’s expectations, based on consensus estimates from LSEG.
Earnings per share: $1.56 adjusted vs. $1.48 expected Earnings: $17.67 billion adjusted vs. $17.53 billion expected
Bastian said demand is strong across the board, noting that Delta Air Lines, the most profitable airline in the U.S., caters to high-income customers in the K-shaped economy.
In fact, sales of its premium seats outpaced the back of Coach’s airplanes. Premium tickets such as first class brought in $6.92 billion in revenue in the quarter, while main cabin reported revenue of $6.85 billion.
Bastian said World Cup demand was stronger than expected, including from visitors to the U.S. The company also said in its earnings call that corporate travel increased in the second quarter, with aerospace and defense, banking and automotive sectors driving growth.
This year’s record fuel prices have led airlines to scale back growth plans and cut unprofitable flights, causing airfares to soar. Airfares rose nearly 27% in May from a year earlier, according to the latest federal data, but government officials say they have not yet passed the full cost of higher fuel costs on to consumers. Bastian said Delta is returning about 60% to consumers and should approach 100% this quarter.
Delta’s revenue per empty mile (a measure of how much revenue an airline generates for each seat it operates) rose 17% year over year in the second quarter, but its cost per empty mile increased 21%. (Delta Air Lines also has other sources of revenue, including cargo, maintenance operations, and a fuel refinery.)
Delta Air Lines’ second-quarter net income fell 25% from a year earlier to $1.6 billion ($2.44 per share), but operating revenue rose 19% from 2025 to $19.76 billion. Adjusting for one-time items such as third-party refinery sales, Delta Air Lines reported a profit of $1.03 billion, or $1.56 per share.
Delta Air Lines’ refinery was also a bright spot, with revenue at its Pennsylvania facility in Trainer rising 83% to $2.09 billion.
