The stock price of Delta Air Lines (Delta stock) rose during premarket trading on Thursday as the airline issued a bullish outlook for the final three months of the year on the back of improving demand for business travel.
The airline company reported that business travel was becoming better, particularly after the Labor Day holiday, and that demand both domestically and internationally remained strong.
Delta Stock (DAL) Projected Price
It forecasts that its revenue for the December quarter will increase by between 5% and 9% compared to the same time in 2019, and that its adjusted earnings per share would fall in the range of $1 to $1.25. According to FactSet, analysts now anticipate fourth-quarter earnings per share of $0.79 and sales to be around 3% higher than levels seen in 2019.
Ed Bastian, the chief executive officer of Delta, was quoted as saying in a statement that “the travel recovery continues as consumer expenditure switches to experiences and demand strengthen in business and international.”
Following the Labor Day holiday on September 4, Delta reported that business bookings have recovered and are currently at “the highest recovery rates” since the beginning of the epidemic. Delta also projected that business bookings will rise to 80% of 2019 levels by the conclusion of the quarter. The business anticipates that this pattern will carry over into the fourth quarter.
Trans-Atlantic demand, another sector that had been lagging post-Covid, has also recovered, driven mostly by the popularity of holiday destinations such as Italy, Spain, and Greece. According to Delta (NYSE:DAL), this is the first time since the pandemic that international unit revenue growth has surpassed domestic growth.
In the fiscal third quarter that ended in September, the firm reported adjusted earnings per share of $1.51, which fell short of the average expectation provided by FactSet, which was $1.53. Although the airline’s quarterly revenue of $12.84 billion set a record, it came in slightly below analysts’ projections of $12.9 billion in revenue. It included a cost of $35 million from the impact of Hurricane Ian, which had led airlines to cancel flights and customers to avoid journeys to impacted areas. This resulted in the loss of revenue for the airlines. Delta (NYSE:DAL) anticipates a similarly significant impact in the month of October.
The share price, which had dropped by more than 25% for the year to that point as of Wednesday’s closure, increased by more than 4% in the very early trading before the market opened.
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Author Valerie Remorosa 
