Delta Air Lines Inc. DAL, -3.55 percent saw its stock rise 1.6 percent in premarket trade on Wednesday as the airline reported a narrower-than-anticipated second-quarter loss as revenue fell less than predicted, owing to “accelerating demand” for air travel. In prepandemic 2019, net income declined to $652 million, or $1.02 per share, from $1.44 billion, or $2.21 per share, in the same period. Excluding nonrecurring items like perks tied to government payroll assistance programs, the business lost $1.07 per share in 2019, down from $2.35 in the previous year, but it surpassed the FactSet loss forecast of $1.38. Revenue plummeted 43% to $7.13 billion in 2019, topping the FactSet estimate of $6.20 billion, while passenger revenue fell 53% to $5.33 billion, but still outperformed forecasts of $5.01 billion. The load factor dropped from 88 percent to 69 percent, almost missing the FactSet average of 69.8%. Total revenue is expected to be down 30 percent to 35 percent in the third quarter compared to the same period last year. “Domestic leisure traffic has entirely recovered to 2019 levels, while business and international travel are showing hopeful indications of revival,” stated Chief Executive Ed Bastian. “In a capital-disciplined manner, we are also opportunistically acquiring aircraft and building upside flexibility to speed our capacity restoration in 2022 and beyond.” Delta’s stock is up 2.8 percent year to date through Tuesday, while the US Global Jets ETF JETS, -2.64 percent is up 3.9 percent and the S&P 500 SPX, -0.35 percent is up 16.3 percent./n
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