Sept 12 (Askume) – Delta Air Lines (DAL.N) said on Thursday that unit revenue trends improved in the third quarter due to strong travel demand and slower capacity across the industry.
Airlines are cutting capacity as the summer travel boom creates excess capacity in a race to make profits and forces airlines to offer discounted fares.
Delta Airlines said in July that pricing power would improve from August as all major airlines adjust their capacity expansion plans.
The airline now expects positive unit revenue growth on domestic and transatlantic routes in September.
Delta Air Lines also expects third-quarter earnings per share to reach the upper end of its previous forecast range of $1.70 to $2.00, excluding the impact of 45 cents per share from a global network outage in July.
The company expects 2024 earnings per share to be at or above the midpoint of its previous forecast of $6 to $7, excluding the impact of outage-related cancellations.
Due out in July software update from global cybersecurity company CrowdStrike (CRWD.O)Systems problems occurred for Microsoft (MSFT.O) customers , including several airlines .
Atlanta-based Delta Airlines canceled nearly 7,000 flights over five days as disruptions continued at the airline despite conditions easing among peers. The airline is facing a U.S. Transportation Department investigation over the flight disruptions.
The airline has said it expects the cuts to disrupt the travel plans of 1.3 million customers and expects losses of at least $500 million.
The airline lowered its revenue forecast for the current quarter to between flat to 1% growth due to flight disruptions, from its previous forecast that estimated 2% to 4% growth.
The company’s shares fell 2% in volatile trading.
