delta airlines expects revenue to increase in the fourth quarter thanks to strong travel demand and strong year-end holiday bookings.
The Atlanta-based airline on Thursday expected fourth-quarter adjusted earnings of $1.60 to $1.85 per share, compared with Wall Street expectations of $1.71 per share, an adjustment from the same period reported a year earlier, according to LSEG. After that, it was more than $1.28 per share.
Sales are expected to increase 2% to 4% year-over-year, compared with expectations for a 4.1% increase. The company warned that it expects revenue to decline by 1 percentage point due to lower demand around the Nov. 5 U.S. presidential election.
“We expect to see some disruption before and after the election, as we’ve seen in past national elections,” CEO Ed Bastian said in an interview. “I think consumers will pause a little bit when making investment decisions, whether it’s discretionary or not. I think you’re going to hear other industries talking about that as well.”
He added that holiday bookings were very strong.


Here’s how Delta Air Lines’ third-quarter results compared to Wall Street expectations based on LSEG consensus estimates:
Earnings per share: $1.50 adjusted vs. $1.52 expected Earnings: $14.59 billion adjusted vs. $14.67 billion expected
Delta Air Lines reiterated that its adjusted earnings took a 45-cent hit to $1.50 per share due to July’s CrowdStrike failure, slightly below analyst expectations. Delta Airlines struggled to restore power after a power outage that cost thousands of employees. microsoft Airlines were forced to cancel thousands of flights because Windows machines went offline. Delta Air Lines announced a $380 million hit to its revenue as a result of the incident.
Bastian said Delta is seeking compensation from CrowdStrike and Microsoft for the outage.
“The havoc that has been caused, in my opinion, should be fully compensated,” he told CNBC. “This matter is now in the hands of our attorneys. We hope to see a resolution, but we are keeping all options open.”
Still, for the three months ended Sept. 30, Delta’s net income rose 15% from a year earlier to $1.27 billion, and total revenue rose 1% to $15.68 billion. Passenger revenue has been stable since last year, but sales from premium products such as first class continued to outpace main cabin.
Overcapacity in the domestic market has kept airfares in check, but Delta President Glenn Hauenstein said the airline believes “industry capacity growth continues to rationalize and continues to grow in the final quarter of this year and into 2025. “Delta Air Lines is well-positioned.” The company plans to expand capacity by 3% to 4% in the fourth quarter.
Delta Air Lines said it still expects full-year adjusted earnings to be between $6 and $7 per share, excluding the impact of CrowdStrike.