Delta Air Lines' corporate demand and sales increased during the fourth quarter and the carrier anticipates that trajectory to continue into the first quarter of 2025, executives said during a Friday earnings call.
"Corporate sales grew 10 percent year over year, improving three points sequentially," Delta president Glen Hauenstein said. "Strength built through the quarter driven by both volume and fare, with broad-based strength geographically and across all sectors. … Those trends are continuing into the first quarter."
Hauenstein called out its transatlantic segment as having an "outstanding performance." He noted that during the off-peak winter season, it's been "really, really strong, not only advanced bookings, but close-end business travel going in the transatlantic has been incredibly strong."
Delta often polls corporate travel managers in the weeks leading up to its quarterly calls, and Hauenstein said that in the carrier's most recent survey, "90 percent expected to exceed or meet last year's spend."
Hauenstein added in response to an analyst question that the corporate market is "reverting [to where it used to be], but it's still different," he said. "On the margins, close-in has picked up, because the booking curves had elongated during the Covid recovery. Those have come in over the past year or so. Tuesday and Wednesday travel is picking up. It's not back to where it was, but on the margin, it's coming more towards what it was pre-Covid."
Delta's share of corporate volume also is "at or near record highs every month," Hauenstein said. "We see no deterioration in our share in the past year in the forward sales. As it relates to these trends, it was primarily early in the year driven by traffic, then as we headed towards the end of the year, it was driven by both the mix of traffic and yield."
Delta Q4, FY24 Metrics
Delta reported fourth-quarter revenue of nearly $15.6 billion, up 9 percent year over year, and $12.8 billion in passenger revenue, an increase of 5 percent for the period. Full-year revenue was more than $61.6 billion, up 6 percent from 2023. Full-year passenger revenue was nearly $50.9 billion, representing a 4 percent increase year over year.
Fourth-quarter net income was $843 million compared with more than $2 billion a year prior. Full-year net income was nearly $3.5 billion, down about 25 percent from 2023. Capacity was up 5 percent year over year for the quarter, and up 6 percent for the year. The average fuel price was $2.36 per gallon for the quarter and $2.57 for the full year.
Guidance for the first quarter included a projected revenue increase of 7 percent to 9 percent year over year. The carrier plans to increase capacity 3 percent to 4 percent in 2025, with more than 85 percent of incremental seats in premium cabins, Hauenstein said.
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