A busy summer of travel and lower fuel prices have helped to push profits higher at Delta in the second quarter. Alison Sider reports on what happened at The Wall Street Journal:
- It has been another busy summer for airlines—the number of people passing through U.S. airports has roughly returned to prepandemic levels, according to the Transportation Security Administration.
- Airport passenger volumes hit a new high on June 30, a day Delta said was its highest summer revenue day ever.
- The first full summer season without pandemic-era travel restrictions for many countries has boosted appetite for international trips. Delta said its revenue from international flying was 61% higher than a year earlier.
Delta’s CEO says the economy isn’t rattling fliers
- Fears that inflation or an economic slowdown would keep travelers home haven’t materialized. Bastian said that the travel rebound isn’t a short-term phenomenon but a change in the way consumers choose to spend time and money.
- “Premium travel is the number one priority for the consumers that we target,” said Bastian. “They’re not interested in buying houses or cars or boats or electronics, but they are interested in traveling.”
- After the Labor Department’s consumer-price index showed a sharp drop in airfare in June, Bastian says easing ticket prices aren’t a sign of waning demand but of things getting back to normal following last year’s “jailbreak” summer of sky-high demand and constrained supply. “Fares are healthy, as you can see in our outlook, but they’re not extreme the way they were a year ago.”
Read more here.
