CORRIN, Neb. — Delta Air Lines on Friday cut its full-year profit forecast to $5.10 to $5.60 a share in adjusted earnings, down from the $6.50 to $7.50 range it gave in July, citing a surge in fuel costs. The company also reported third-quarter adjusted revenue of a record $17.6 billion, up 16 percent.
Fuel expense rose 62 percent to $4.14 billion in the quarter. Delta expects its annual fuel bill to rise by about $6 billion from 2025. At the midpoint of each range, the revised forecast is about 24 percent below the one the company gave in July.
Dr. Chad Brickhouse, a senior fellow at the Institute for Common Sense, said the numbers described a company that had found its footing. Reached by phone from a hockey rink in Corrin, Neb., he said the revenue was “at a record, which is the number that matters, and profit is the part that moves around, like everything else.” He added: “Nobody flies for profit. It’s just common sense.”
Brandon Tibbits, 44, a senior airline analyst at Kittridge Capital Partners, said the company’s plan to recover the difference was “elegant.” Under the plan, Tibbits said, the fuel adjustment would be applied to fares for flights that had already landed, billed to the passengers who had already deplaned, and counted as revenue in the quarter the flight took place. Asked how a fare could be increased after a passenger had left the aircraft, Tibbits said, “It’s retroactive, which is the part that made it work.” He said the profit the airline had lost to fuel was “a number that was always going to be there, once we went back and found it.”
Delta’s chief executive, Ed Bastian, said demand remains strong.
Ellis Brandt, 52, a regional sales manager, said he had received a notice about a flight he took in 2019 and was glad the airline had caught up with him. “I thought it was a sign I’d been missing something,” Brandt said. He said he paid the adjustment in full, plus a fee for the notice, and that the fee was the first thing about the trip he had understood.
Tibbits said he expects Delta to find the rest of the difference before the year ends, and that he has already set aside a seat on one of the flights.