Delta Air Lines is earning half the industry’s profit. They had a 13.6% operating margin and made $1.3 billion in the last quarter. That’s great – except that both figures are down year-over-year and the airline lowered its guidance for the third quarter as well. Their stock lost 8% of its value at the open on Thursday’s morning’s announcement, though it gained half of that back by the end of the trading day.
The airline’s spin is that there’s too much capacity, and the problem is other airlines, but the industry is correcting itself. In other words, the problem isn’t Delta, and going forward Delta won’t have a problem. I don’t think this actually makes sense.
- Delta says the problem is other airlines adding too much capacity. According to Delta President Glen Hauenstein,
[D]omestic industry seat growth accelerated into the summer months beyond normal demand growth. This has impacted Main Cabin unit revenue trends through the summer. With scheduled seat growth decelerating into the fall, June and July will be the low point with unit revenue trends expected to significantly improve in August and beyond.
But the number of seats in the domestic market are up 6% year-over-year, according to aviation analytics company Cirium. Delta is up 5%. Delta domestic seats grew roughly on par with the industry.
Across the Atlantic, Delta seat growth was 5% and exceeded United and British Airways. Seat growth was led by Air France, which is part-owned by and a joint venture partner of Delta vassal Virgin Atlantic grew 9%.
While they say they expect other airlines to trim capacity, Delta isn’t doing its part, and their capacity is expected to grow faster than revenue.
For the September quarter, we expect capacity growth of 5% to 6% and revenue growth of 2% to 4%.
- And if the problem is too much capacity, then Delta is actually saying air travel is commoditized. Their message for years has been that people choose Delta, that Delta offers a differentiated product. If that were true it shouldn’t matter if Spirit and Frontier are adding capacity. (And while Spirit and Frontier are growing seats, they aren’t growing more seats than Delta is.)
What we learn from the second quarter results is that most of the Delta Air Lines product remains a commodity, and the market knows this.
Ultimately Delta Air Lines stock trades at 6 to 7 times earnings because airlines are high fixed cost and cyclical businesses. They have high fixed costs and are highly vulnerable to changes in the cost of fuel. And at the end of the day most of the seats they sell are economy seats where price continues to prevail as the primary driver of consumer choice.
Before the pandemic they actually were trying to de-commoditize economy, where most of their customers fly. They were offering hot towels, welcome drinks and amenity kits in long haul coach as well as coursed-meals. They aren’t trying to do this anymore.
Delta Air Lines Economy Amenity Kits, 2019
The airline has been able to build a brand around premium product, but that only goes so far when the premium product isn’t better than what’s offered by competitors. They have more Boeing 767s than any other widebody type, and the business class seats on their 767s are inferior to what’s offered by American Airlines, United and JetBlue – and inferior to British Airways, Air France, KLM and Air Canada. They’re also behind American and United in differentiating their ground experience, and behind United in on board business class amenities.
And while Hauenstein talked about the success of their American Express relationship in the earnings call, noting that “American Express remuneration for the quarter was 1.9 billion, up 9% year over year,” SkyMiles isn’t a competitive differentiator that is a reason to choose Delta over other airlines helping to de-commoditize the product.
Just double and triple mile redemption of sky pesos and the delta evangelists
Will certainly pay up as they always do for a vastly better experience cough cough
Problem solved.They were just severely underpriced all along
Tim Dunn must be beside himself. The is premium news on a Friday.
Don’t worry, Tim will spin it. He always does.
no spinning. Gary just can’t read.
It is precisely because Delta gets an average fare premium to the industry that Delta has transformed air transportation on Delta from a commodity.
If Gary actually read the numbers, he would see that DL’s revenue in premium cabins grew by 10% but was flat for economy.
It is overcapacity in the ECONOMY cabin that is causing an inability to increase fares.
And the airlines that will be most impacted are those that cannot get premium revenue – and that includes Southwest and the low cost/ultra low cost carriers.
American will underperform on revenue while United’s revenue performance will look more like Delta but on a smaller scale since United generates less revenue even though it flies more ASMs.
Wall Street analysts get it even if Gary doesn’t.
Delta will still generate the most revenue of any airline in the world, has the highest market cap also of any airline in the world, and will generate the highest profits of any US airline
The airlines DO operate as a commodity. And they control prices like OPEC by decreasing supply to keep prices up when necessary. The exception is during a severe economic downturn when no amount of decreasing supply will keep prices up (same for OPEC). But during normal economic times they control supply to keep prices up.
Delta indicated that the Olympics in Paris cost it about $100 million due to a decline in demand as a result of that.
See? When daddy can’t bring up stats to argue his point, or solid evidence, he resorts to insulting the blogger. And daddy is NEVER wrong!
“Delta vassal Virgin Atlantic”
Knowing how Delta has evolved over the past decade since the purchase of VS, I think its the other way around. One is driving the bus but the other is handling many other aspects.
While the ad hominem attacks are both irrelevant and unnecessary, Tim makes good points on the economics. I don’t see how Delta identifying capacity exceeding demand for main cabin as a problem is blaming other airlines. Why would Delta cut its capacity just because competitors raise their capacity? As Gary notes, Delta is still increasing capacity less than the industry. I think we learned something about being unprepared for growth and changing demand by excessive capacity cuts.
Air travel IS a commodity…*most* of the time. If I want to fly domestically (within the US), the two most important things I look for is PRICE and TIME — how much is the ticket going to cost me, and can I get a flight that departs and arrives at a convenient time for me. With SFO as my main airport, and OAK as the second, the answer is *rarely* Delta. (The last time I flew Delta was April 2022: SFO-MSY via SLC r/t.)
If one focuses on *transferable* points, rather than status, then that’s PRICE and TIME are all that counts. Certainly if the focus is on status, then loyalty to one carrier (or one alliance) begins to make a bit more sense. Plenty of pax are loyal to Delta, including Cassie Hunt apparently, but there are plenty of people loyal to UA, AA, WN, AS and — god only knows why — Spirit.
I know we all have our favs and yes, DL was leader of the service pack for years but they were also the worst of the worst when they merged with NWA (yes Northwest honestly saved them). Now it’s 10 plus years later and others are coming out of mergers and miss management. What has DL done?
AA firsts – US premium Economy, entire widebody fleet with 1-2-1 pods / flagship, Flagship lounges and dining, high-speed wifi (and now being added to RJ 2-class), best domestic and Central/South American network (even with DL trying to steal it with LaTam and AeroMexico) major refleeting and program to maintain a young fleet.
UA firsts – Polarias, luxury bedding, best app/tech, best Hawaiian, European and Asian network from the US.
and both AA and UA using AI to improve performance and passenger experience.
DL – following in the AA and UA footsteps and trying to make it sound like they came up with it, oh and rediciously high fares (which will come to bit them), closing doors 10 minutes ahead of departure to make sure they are on time and REALLY bad food compared to AA and UA. . .YUCK!
Let’s face it, we all have our favs for different reasons but DL’s PR just isn’t holding up anymore. They walk around like they are better then the rest (Tom Brady syndrome I belive it’s called) but they aren’t. Each has a strong and weak points for sure but lately AA and UA are starting to shine a lot brigher.
Kind of tiresome commoditization of second-rate air service, until you address the Jones Act and the Ninth Freedom of the Air.
Footnote, passenger traffic on foreign flag airlines to foreign flag cruise ships is booming. Why?
DL lost my ticket purchases and CC spend when they revamped their medallion program towards CC spend alone. I’m happily choosing other airlines at cheaper prices and stacking points through AE Platinum to allocate where desired.
@Tim ” Gary just can’t read.
It is precisely because Delta gets an average fare premium to the industry that Delta has transformed air transportation on Delta from a commodity.
If Gary actually read the numbers, he would see that DL’s revenue in premium cabins grew by 10% but was flat for economy.”
I literally said it’s the economy cabin that’s the problem, which is where most seats are, and that is still a commodity product for Delta which is why industry capacity matters to them.
“Wall Street analysts get it even if Gary doesn’t.”
Delta’s stock tanked on the news. So the market and I are in sync on this one.
“Delta will still generate the most revenue of any airline in the world, has the highest market cap also of any airline in the world, and will generate the highest profits of any US airline”
Utterly irrelevant, Delta stock still trades at a 6-7x multiple of earnings because it is still an airline no matter how much its executives have argued it should be treated differently than the rest of the industry.
If you seek a premium flight to Austrailia, please consider Delta’s elite, customer-centric, and Earth-forward flight from LAX to SYD.
Great analysis, Gary — thanks.
A cyclical business to be sure, but still strong results. While not as high as expected, I think this will be as good as it gets for the industry this quarter. A lot of interesting opinions from the UA and AA fans about Delta slipping- well I look forward to hearing all that they have to say in the coming weeks as their carrier of choice shows us all how they’ve been doing. I’m sure it will be enlightening!
Gary,
as usual, you make some really good statements – in this case about Delta’s premium revenue – but then destroy what you just write by saying
“And if the problem is too much capacity, then Delta is actually saying air travel is commoditized.”
If you had said, economy travel is a commodity and used the data that you did, you would be accurate.
All of the big 3 stocks were down similar amounts and it is absolutely relevant about DL’s profitability and market cap because the market has already priced in a pretty big premium in DL’s valuation and a couple percent movement doesn’t change that.
And you missed the main point.
The target of DL’s comments – which are uncharacteristic – are not the ULCCs but United that repeatedly talks about all of the capacity it is going to add to the system and do it by stealing share from the ULCCs and LCCs.
Given that UAL is next to report and always manages to try to act like it is run by the smartest execs, it will be interesting to see how they explain their plans to grow so aggressively and to absorb the massive numbers of orders – 3X in value of any other airline.
The notion that UAL will convince Wall Street that a high capacity growth makes sense is still to none.
And Delta has consistently managed to grow faster than United so it is clear that Delta is not giving up share to United – which I said all along would be the case.
Not only does Delta intend to use its profitability to grow into UA’s most lucrative international markets but they will also ensure that UAL’s plan to reshape the domestic industry goes precisely nowhere if UAL wants to be seen as viable or well-run
@Tim Dunn – I read the article in The Guardian yesterday about the loathsome vermin sharing your name. You must need a Xanax prescription just due to that. Condolences.
There is far too much focus on short-term profit/loss. While we all want to make money, we should always focus on making short-term decisions that help long-term goals. Sadly this is driven by bonuses, and stock value in the short term. If anything, there is not enough capacity.
My view. DL 3MM.
Just came back from Europe D1 on 767. Hard or soft product well below QR or EK. Haven’t got recent experience with others.
Boarding was a zoo. Gate agents weren’t controlling things and bus to hard stand.
Food other than the ice cream wasn’t much. Left the chicken and salad. Not to my taste. Past experience was short ribs are just fatty roast beef. Departure lounge same as Priority Pass. Ok, but nothing special.
Flight. Leather seats that don’t breathe with no mattress. I used the blanket as a seat topper.
Lighting was better, but I find Delta’s overhead lighting weak and often aimed wrong with no ability to adjust.
I was on. GU cert with a 2K coach ticket. Pretty much same fare paid on QR for business class Q suite to IST.
Only two bathrooms one for D1 and PE shared second. Other airlines keep them spotless. Not so here. Floors wet most of the flight.
New D1 Lounge at JFK. Nice. Food was good. Lots of staff keeping things nice. Not enough ground time to do more than gran a quick bite. Fancy dining room takes 1:30 minimum.
Given a choice, D1 is over priced.
The new Delta Saudi agreement doesn’t make any sense to me. Riyadh would like to become an Adu Dhabi or Dubai. I just don’t see that happening for many reasons.
Delta is not at a point where the product can command an asking price above competitors.
Doug,
your perspective is interesting.
DL knows that the 767-300ER is their weakest product and the 767-400 is better but can only do so much given the width of the cabin
DL uses its 767s on routes where it is appropriate; you didn’t say what route you flew but the 763 is largely to leisure destinations or a few Central Europe routes
AA got rid of its 767s and A330s and is short of capacity and has so few planes on order it can’t grow international much.
UA held onto all of its aircraft including its 767s – which are actually a touch older than DL’s – but put Polaris up front and destroyed the economics of that aircraft.
There are clear solid reasons why UA made half what DL made across the Atlantic last year.
DL has more capacity to Europe but doesn’t do the Arab Middle East or Asia or use narrowbodies to the UK or continental Europe.
And DL is negotiating with Airbus to convert the 20 option widebodies that were part of the A350-1000 order to A330-900 orders; the last firm A339 orders will be delivered next year so Delta is ready to keep the pipeline going and keep replacing 767s, of which they said several will leave this year.
“DL knows that the 767-300ER is their weakest product and the 767-400 is better but can only do so much given the width of the cabin”
“UA held onto all of its aircraft including its 767s… – but put Polaris up front and destroyed the economics of that aircraft”
So on the one hand, you say Delta just can’t do anything to improve product. On the other hand you note that delta could improve the product with a better seat but choose not to. There’s nothing premium about a product where leadership actively chooses to keep a subpar product in D1 because they don’t like the more premium options and don’t think they can sell a better seat, a problem and issue United doesn’t seem to agree with or have on the exact same depreciated plane… You can just admit it, Tim. Delta is actively choosing to keep a crappy seat vs the competition. It’s the very obvious reality unless you have blinders on.
Make up your mind, Tim.
United is run by a lot smarter people than you and a depreciated 763 is a sunk cost is not going to have its economics destroyed by a seat that is far more premium than the other 763 competition, Delta.
AA Flight Attendant here. Grocery bill, up. Gas bill, up. Rent, up. Insurance, up. Cost of breathing, UP! Stop whining that airfares ain’t what they used to be!
If your message is that Delta is not a differentiated product you’re wrong. I’m always disappointed if I have to fly anything except Delta for a wide variety of reasons. If your message is that the differentiated product is not enough to overcome other economic factors then you’re probably correct
Gee!!! I thought Delta was the world’s only PERFECT airline!!! LOL!!!
Max,
It clearly goes over your head but Delta didn’t do a full redo of the 767-300ERs because they intend to be out of international service within the next five years.
And DL uses the 767-300ER where it makes sense to do so – little high revenue demand.
In contrast, DL has Delta One Suites – a far superior product to Polaris on DL’s A330-900s and A350s and it is those aircraft that make up nearly all of DL’s transpacific fleet – where Delta says it is now getting a revenue premium to the industry which has to mean also to UA even though UA is twice DL’s size across the Pacific.
And you are free to argue all you want about how smart the execs are at United but they managed to make $2 billion less than DL in 2023 even though UA flies more ASMs. and that profit premium translates throughout every region.
And don’t pull that crap about monopolizing hub markets since it is obvious that is nothing more than a feeble and failed attempt to admit that DL gets more revenue.
argue on, Max. you always back yourself into a corner acting, like Scott Kirby, that you are the smartest guy in the room only to be shown to be outsmarted.
I think Delta’s “problem” — to the extent they have one — is thinking they’re better than they are because they offer an experience to upscale customers that is often slightly better than their competitors. But the reason it’s slightly better is because their competitors realize there aren’t enough passengers willing to pay for these modest perks,. Delta also seems to know this, as these perks keep getting reduced to a service level that really isn’t better than their competitors. Honestly, in the past year or so, the only thing I think Delta does better than UA or AA is their lounges. And, even with that, I’ve seen UA offer a very competitive lounge experience at EWR and AA do the same at DCA. And that’s before considering even better premium lounge experiences like AA’s Flagship.
Delta’s longer term strategic problem is the bad luck of having hubs in declining cities. Does anyone really think the future of the country is in places like Detroit, Minneapolis, Seattle or even New York or LA? Their only Sunbelt hub is ATL, and that’s hardly the leading Sunbelt city these days. Given this geographic reality, they’ll inevitably have to battle a competitive headwind.
lol. oh tim. You just hate that Delta tells investor their profits come from their monopoly hubs. It’s truly humorous how much that spoils your day.
but again, your first statement:
“DL knows that the 767-300ER is their weakest product and the 767-400 is better but can only do so much given the width of the cabin”
And your subsequent backtrack when called out on it:
“It clearly goes over your head but Delta didn’t do a full redo of the 767-300ERs because they intend to be out of international service within the next five years.”
You can keep being a brat and ignoring what delta says about their own profits. Fine by me. And you can talk about the width of the 767 only to come back and say they didn’t upgrade the cabins for a different reason when it’s pointed out that your own statements contradicted themselves. Fine by me. I’m used to it from you.
But it’s always nice to see how little you have to keep you busy other than run between comment sections of various blogs. It amuses everyone.
Per the A339 D1 seat. really a matter of opinion. Most people don’t consider Delta’s Coffin seat to be industry-leading with a door or without but it’s certainly unsurprising that you have a dogmatic opinion on the issue that can’t be challenged regardless of the coffin seat’s reputation.
Happy Friday, Timmy. I’m surprised you’re on this website. Did you get too tired of looking foolish on OMAAT the last few days?
Happy Troll Fridays. You’re the only one I know that observes it.
And I’ll never claim to be Scott Kirby or the smartest guy in the room. The guy is a multi-multi-millionaire and is far removed from the comment sections of a blog, unlike you and me.
I’m not the smartest guy in the room but I know you’re not even in the same room. You’re off in some drug-induced purple-haze drugfest on some Delta high that no one understands
@Will Riddle – Delta cabin crew are marginally friendlier than those of American and United. Their lounges offer more food, usually have longer lines. Their employees have a pride in their product.
Their business class seats on 767s are vastly inferior, their inflight catering certainly isn’t better. They have been more operationally reliable of late (as they were pre-pandemic).
@ Tim — And, Delta will STILL fly POS 763s to Europe. Pass.
Max,
you, plain and simple, can’t stand that Delta runs a superior business to United and it shows up every time the two (and every other airline) reports profits.
Delta uses the 767-300ERs for the same types of markets that UA uses the 757s which you want to pretend don’t exist when you took about premium cabins but EVERYONE knows that the UA 757s don’t have Polaris on them but they regularly show up in continental Europe and the UK.
And DL is going to sell premium select plus Delta One on every flight on JFK-LAX largely using the 767-300ER, something UA cannot say it will consistently do.
If Delta really made all of its money from its core ATL, DTW, MSP and SLC hubs, then why wasn’t AA and UA smart enough to seek out and build hubs as profitable as DL had? The domestic airline industry was deregulated the same time ago for all 3 airlines -and for WN that also existed at the time.
And your comment makes even less sense when you and UA crow incessantly about how great UA’s hubs are – and DL’s hubs carry a majority of connecting traffic. If UA’s hubs are so great and DL’s core hubs are really predominantly connecting, then how are UA’s hubs superior.
And then you have the definitive word from US DOT data – which OF COURSE YOU HATE – which shows that the average fares in DL’s hubs are NOT HIGHER than AA or UA get in their hubs.
No, Max, you simply can’t stand that Delta runs a more profitable airline and Scott Kirby , who proclaimed that in 2017 that he would match DL’s profitability, as yet to do so.
And Scott Kirby was the same executive that negotiated the DL-UA DCA-LGA slot deal which ended up giving DL 1/4 of the LGA slots for $60 million net of the AA merger and other divestitures. THAT is the Scott Kirby that DL really competes against.
And it is THAT Scott Kirby that thinks he is going to dump a bunch of capacity into the domestic market, kill the ULCCs and fly all of their capacity on the MAX 10s that would fix UA’s overcapacity of RJs and replace them with mainline aircraft.
It is THAT Scott Kirby that threatens to flood the market w/ capacity.
The ULCCs will live or die on their own just as will AA and WN.
DL makes 50% of the profits for the US airline industry, UA makes 30% and AA and WN split the remaining 20% minus a couple percent for AS.
DL’s comments about capacity weren’t targeted at ULCCs or AA or WN. Those will all fail based on their own strategies or their own ability to turn things around.
UA is the single airline that has the capacity to throw a bunch of capacity into the market and destroy pricing and it is UA that will have to explain to investors why it repeatedly underperforms because of overcapacity such as what UA did in the Pacific last winter and what they do to Asia.
It doesn’t matter if Delta’s comments went over your head or Gary’s.
Delta, which very much doesn’t comment about the industry most of the time, made its comments about UA and its capacity management plans.
And if UA continues to throw capacity around, it can explain to Wall Street why it continues to destroy its own margins – whether it be domestic or international
Gary,
please post your flight history on Delta widebody flights to back up your statements.
And also post actual data about on-time.
How is that the DOT data disagrees with you?
DL’s on-time in 2023 was BETTER than its on-time in 2019 and that is true so far in 2024.
and Delta’s cancellation rate is lower than it was pre-pandemic relative to other carriers including AA and UA.
If I had a dollar for every statement you made that was contrary to actual published facts and data, I would be a millionaire.
But you love to make inflammatory statements even though they are wrong so you can get page clicks when I have to spend time correcting you.
Timmothy, you come upstairs and take your medicine right now!
Tim Dunn: Wash, rinse, spin… repeat ad nauseam.
The airline industry is cyclicle. There will come a day, some day, when either UA or AA (or WN) makes more $ than Delta. Delta has good leadership now. But nothing lasts forever. The question then is will Tim still try to spin that DL is the best. Because there will be a day when AA (after BK?) or UA (more likely) outearn DL.
And that’s why he’s a hypcrit.
@Tim Dunn – What statement here that I made are you actually even disagreeing with? I think you’re off somewhere having a conversation with yourself, since I pointed out that Delta has been more reliable than competitors and that they were more reliable pre-pandemic as well, simply making the point that they’ve come back from their 2021-era problems which is impressive.
Gary
your statement that YOU JUST MADE IF FALSE.
Delta’s on time and cancellation rate is as high or higher than it was in 2019.
How is that Cranky Flier can see on-time and cancellation data, the DOT publishes it, but you make stuff up that is completely contrary to data?
Delta was more reliable than other airlines before covid and is again – by the same or a wider margin.
This is far less than about Delta than about expecting you to back up your statements with data.
mr. mocker done,
Since you can’t even manage to post a couple sentence response without multiple incorrectly spelled words, there isn’t much risk of you knowing what is going on in the airline industry, let alone adequately and accurately addressing it.
Oh Timmy,
Your rambling, page long posts masquerading as diatribes often have mistakes. So kettle, meet pot.
I don’t pretend to know everything. Unlike you, the expert at all. I just know that you shill for Delta. And notice how you still didn’t address the fact that the industry is CYCLICAL and some day DL will make less than AA, UA, or WN. When that day comes, will you admit that DL made less? OR will you still be a shill. A shill who got fired.
13 paragraphs of crazy in response with not a single bit of rebuttal to what I wrote. I’ve never once talked about United’s hubs. lol
You’ll really enjoy reading Delta’s investor day powerpoints one day where they talk about their profits. But until then… live your fantasy. We all need a dream even if even Delta doesn’t agree with you.
Put your Zocalo margarita down. You’re embarrassing yourself, Tim.
Happy Friday. You need a life.
@tim – read again. put on your glasses this time. you ae not disagreeing with what i wrote, just what you somehow inexplicably think i wrote
YOU, Max, are the only one that lives in your own world – where you run around the internet telling everyone that the data is all wrong but you can’t explain how it should be
And you have REPEATEDLY made the charge that DL’s profits are driven because it monopolizes its own hubs WHICH means that, even if that was true, AA and UA didn’t figure out how to do in the past 46 years of deregulation what DL has done.
But the data IS AGAINST your theory. Delta’s core 4 hubs don’t get higher average fares than AA and UA’s
Delta gets higher average fares than AA and UA ACROSS ITS NETWORK including in its competitive coastal hubs.
DL outperforms AA in NYC and LAX, BOS Is one of DL’s highest yielding hubs (which is why they are growing it and adding an A330 pilot base which means even more international growth) and DL is now getting a revenue premium across the Pacific – which is where UA is the biggest airline.
You can swat at the sky all you want but it is you that can’t stand reality so you invent your own.
Delta gets a revenue premium because it operates a superior business and airline to its competitors.
btw, the Air Show podcast today is, as usual accurate, in their assessment of DL’s earnings and its earnings call.
Pacific premium…come on…they are less than one half the size of UA, closer to 1/3 in the Pacific. With so few routes of course they will be in the ones with the higher revenue potential first.
Do it like for like on routes and frequency on those routes.
It was a disappointing quarter for Delta vs expectations going into the report.
Greg,
the larger airline usually does have a revenue premium.
On a unit basis, Delta gets a revenue premium over the Pacific -which has been a goal of theirs for some time – JUST LIKE IS AND HAS BEEN THE CASE OVER THE ATLANTIC – where DL and UA are very similarly sized.
Delta has achieved over the Pacific what it has over the Atlantic despite being half of UA’s size over the Pacific.
And, according to your statement, what is the point of growing larger and larger than competitors if your revenue falls in the process? UA is the largest carrier across the Pacific among all countries. Their size is NOT translating into a revenue premium which is opposite of what happens with the largest airline in most regions.
@ Tim Dunn — For the millionith time, NO ONE HERE CARES ABOUT DELTA PROFITS.
I think delta makes its profits from those who follow Tim Dunn’s advice and buy its 450-550 K biz class redemptions as ‘good deals’. Delta should throw in a cap with holes in it for those who buy those rewards (since only a jackass would spend 500K on a reward that VA offers for 120K).
Wow
8 paragraphs now telling me I’m a horrible person
I think I’ll grab my drink at Cantina 512 (yeah… I’m basically a bachelorette party) and ignore your crazy
You just enjoy your night at zocalo
Have a great weekend, big guy!
nobody is telling you that you are horrible, Max.
You have relentlessly pushed the notion that Delta gets its profits by monopolizing fares at its core 4 hubs – and yet you not only can’t provide data – not your misinterpretation of DL’s statements – but you also repeatedly refute data which UA provided to the DOT.
Just accept reality which is that Delta gets a fare premium to the industry because they deliver a product that they can sell for more money to customers.
Gene,
the entire article is about Delta’s profits. YOU need to realize the world doesn’t revolve around you.
Jon,
your statement makes no sense. Delta makes its money from customers that buy cash tickets or use its Amex. The awards are the “rebate.”
And Delta still makes more from its loyalty program than any other airline in the world.
Delta has clearly figured out how to make the money that other airlines wish they could from their loyalties program.
and Delta, like those other airlines, is still growing its loyalty program participation.
Holy cow Timmiboy! You’re out of control with your lies.
“Delta will still generate the most revenue of any airline in the world”
Let`s see.
Total revenue without the refinery in Q124 for Delta 12563 million. Total revenue for United 12539 million. And UAL had the Max 9 grounding in the quarter. UAL is already bigger than DAL in revenue too. And it’s gonna be crystal clear in Q2 and Q3 Timmiboy. You won’t be able to lie anymore about this.
“And Delta has consistently managed to grow faster than United”
Let’s see.
Total revenue without the refinery in Q1 23 and Q1 24 for Delta 11834 and 12563 million, so a growth rate of 6% for Delta.
Total revenue in the same quarters for United 11429 and 12539 million, so a growth rate of 10% for United.
You don’t know the numbers Timmiboy. You’re just a liar.