Delta Air Lines Flight Museum in Atlanta, Georgia.
Leslie Josephs/CNBC
delta airlines We expect 2025 to end better than expected thanks to rising airfares and resilient luxury travel demand.
The company on Thursday expected fourth-quarter adjusted earnings of $1.60 to $1.90 per share, compared with the forecast of $1.65 per share from analysts surveyed by LSEG. Delta Air Lines said its revenue is expected to rise as much as 4% in the final three months of the year, beating Wall Street’s 1.7% estimate.
“As we move into 2026, Delta is well-positioned to achieve top-line growth, margin expansion and profit improvement, consistent with our long-term financial framework,” Chief Executive Officer Ed Bastian said in a statement.
Delta shares rose more than 5% in premarket trading.
Here’s how the company performed for the three months ended September 30 compared to Wall Street expectations, based on LSEG’s consensus estimates:
Earnings per share: $1.71 adjusted vs. $1.53 expected Earnings: $15.2 billion adjusted vs. $15.06 billion expected
Delta Air Lines’ outlook says the airline’s domestic fares and revenue will decline this year as demand improves and flight surpluses decline, especially in early 2025 when consumer confidence was volatile amid the early stages of President Donald Trump’s tariffs.
The Atlanta-based airline will be the first major airline to report results this quarter.
“Cash sales have increased since July,” Bastian said in an interview.
Delta Air Lines’ third-quarter profit was $1.42 billion, or $2.17 per share, an 11% increase from $1.27 billion, or $1.97 per share, in the same period last year. Earnings, adjusted for one-time items such as investment-related adjustments, rose 15% to $1.12 billion, or $1.71 per share, beating analysts’ expectations.
Adjusted revenue increased 4% year over year.
Demand for premium travel continued to outpace bus cabins. Revenue from the luxury segment, which includes first class and larger economy seats, rose 9% to nearly $5.8 billion in the third quarter, while main cabin revenue fell 4% to about $6 billion.
Bastian said he sees no signs that consumers are moving away from premium products.
Delta Air Lines and other airlines have been weeding out unprofitable and unprofitable flights, including unpopular weekday travel dates, to stem the oversupply of seats in the market. This excess capacity, along with changing consumer habits and rising costs, is making previously slim summer profits even harder for some U.S. airlines.
The airline’s domestic unit revenue rose 2% in the third quarter on a 4% increase in capacity, and Delta expects the year-over-year increase to continue this quarter. Overall domestic passenger revenue increased 5% in the third quarter due to increased corporate travel demand.
Delta Air Lines said it expects full-year adjusted earnings per share of $6, at the high end of its 2025 forecast of $5.25 to $6.25 as of July.
Asked about the federal government shutdown, Bastian said he had not seen “any impact” on the airline’s operations in recent days.
