Delta Air Lines posted $380m pre-tax income in Q1

Delta Air Lines has seen its pre-tax income for the first quarter of 2024 grow by $163m or 75 per cent to $380m over that of last year.

This was revealed in the latest financial results of the airline, which was released on Wednesday.

In a statement from the airline made available to The PUNCH, Delta’s Chief Financial Officer, Dan Janki, said, “For the March quarter, we delivered pre-tax income of $380m, an improvement of $163m over last year. Delta’s operational excellence resulted in the best March quarter completion factor in our history, providing an incremental point of capacity growth and unit cost favorability with non-fuel unit costs 1.5 per cent higher than last year.

“Growth is normalising and we are in a period of optimisation, with a focus on restoring our most profitable core hubs and delivering efficiency gains. For the June quarter, non-fuel unit costs are expected to increase approximately two per cent, consistent with our full-year outlook for a low single-digit increase in non-fuel unit costs over 2023.”

In the period under review, Delta Airline’s net income rose by 77 per cent to $288m from $163m.

Fuel expense declined by five per cent to $2.57m from $2.72m in Q1 2023.

Commenting on the report, Delta’s Chief Executive Officer, Ed Bastian, declared, “Thanks to the extraordinary work of our 100,000 people. Delta is delivering the best operational reliability in our history, and we have widened the gap with our competitors. We were thrilled to recognise their efforts with $1.4bn in profit-sharing payouts during the quarter.

“For the March quarter, we delivered record revenue on outstanding operational performance, enabling strong earnings growth. We anticipate continued strong momentum for our business, and in the June quarter, we expect to deliver record revenue, a mid-teens operating margin and earnings of $2.20 to $2.50 per share. We remain confident in our full-year targets for earnings of $6 to $7 per share and free cash flow of $3 to $4bn.”

Delta’s President, Glen Hauenstein, projected that with strong travel demand likely to be sustained into the second quarter, “Delta is continuing into the June quarter, where we expect total revenue growth of five to seven per cent compared to the June quarter 2023 on TRASM of flat to down two per cent.

“Within this outlook, all geographic entities are expected to achieve unit revenue approximately flat to last year, except Latin, where we expect a double-digit decline as we lap strong performance and continue to profitably invest in the network.”