Delta Air Lines Announces September Quarter 2026 Financial Results

Ed Bastian, Chief executive officer of Delta Air Lines

“Demand remains strong, supported by consumers' growing preference for experiences and travel, with air travel continuing to be one of the best values in the consumer economy. Against this backdrop, we delivered September quarter pre-tax profit of $1.5 billion, matching last year's performance, and generated $1.9 billion of free cash flow year-to-date. Our resilience reflects the structural durability we've built over many years, enabling us to effectively navigate one of the most elevated fuel environments in recent times. The foundation of that resilience is our people, whose commitment to delivering for our customers continues to set Delta apart”

Ed Bastian, Chief executive officer of Delta Air Lines

“For the full year, we expect to generate a pre-tax profit of roughly $4.5 billion, absorbing a $6 billion increase in fuel costs. Looking ahead, our focus remains on profitable growth and delivering against our long-term financial framework, including mid-teens margins and returns, durable free cash flow and gross leverage of approximately one times.”

Joe Esposito, Chief commercial officer of Delta Air Lines

“Revenue grew approximately 16 percent over prior year, on flat capacity, driven by broad demand strength and healthy yield growth as we cover higher costs and manage the business for margins”

Joe Esposito, Chief commercial officer of Delta Air Lines

“Revenue momentum is continuing in the December quarter, with strength across all products and geographies, supporting our outlook for total revenue growth of approximately 20 percent over last year. With seats growing less than 2 percent, including a reduction in Main Cabin seats, our capacity positioning supports another quarter of sequential improvement in unit revenue with progression in both Domestic and International.”

Erik Snell, Chief financial officer of Delta Air Lines

“Delta delivered earnings of $1.72 per share in the September quarter, in line with last year while absorbing more than $500 million of higher fuel costs compared to our guidance in early July. In the December quarter, we expect earnings of $1.15 to $1.65 per share, based on a fuel price of approximately $4.25 per gallon. This positions earnings consistent with last year at the upper end of the range.”

Erik Snell, Chief financial officer of Delta Air Lines

“The Delta team continues to deliver for our customers, widening our industry lead in on-time performance and achieving record baggage results. September quarter non-fuel unit costs increased 7.3 percent over the prior year on flat capacity, driven primarily by higher crew and revenue-related costs on capacity growth that was several points below our original plan, including nearly one point of impact from summer storms. With slightly higher capacity and continued operational efficiencies, we expect December quarter non-fuel unit cost growth to improve 1 to 2 points sequentially. Looking to next year, we remain on track for low-single-digit unit cost growth as capacity normalizes, operational improvements continue and we lap higher costs in our baseline.”

Erik Snell, Chief financial officer of Delta Air Lines

“We generated $463 million of free cash flow in the September quarter. The strength of our cash flow generation allows us to consistently reinvest to compound our advantages while reinforcing our investment grade balance sheet. For the full year, we expect to deliver free cash flow of approximately $2.5 billion and pay down more than $2 billion of debt, positioning us to end the year with gross leverage of approximately 2.2x.”