Delta Airlines reported earnings today and it was one of the strongest indications yet that there are two distinct economies in the US: The rich and everyone else. Where there was once the ‘haves’ and the ‘have nots’, there are now only the ‘have lots’ and everyone else.<\/p>\n
Delta is making a deliberate shift away from economy seating to chase the only part of the consumer market that is still growing.<\/p>\n
There is an old adage in the markets: “Don’t tell me what the economy is doing; tell me where the money is going.”<\/p>\n
If you want to understand the 2026 US. consumer, look past the GDP print and straight into the cabin of a Delta 737.. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe are looking at our seat growth in the coming year. … Effectively,
\nnone of our growth in seats will be in the main cabin; virtually all
\nwill be in the premium sector,\u201d Delta CEO Ed Bastian told reporters after today’s earnings release.<\/p>\n
The numbers Delta reported for the fourth quarter are a study in contrast. While the headline figures beat expectations, the internal mechanics tell the real story:<\/p>\n
For the first time in a quarterly result, premium revenue\u2014the seats at the front of the plane\u2014actually overtook the standard coach class.<\/p>\n
As for the earnings themselves, the market was looking for a stronger guide for next year. Shares are down 3.7%.<\/p>\n
DAL stock daily<\/p>\n
Bastian had to cut the outlook last year after the uncertainty of Liberation Day. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not going to project or commit to a record earnings [forecast]
\nuntil we understand the uncertainty,\u201d he said today.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we\u2019re
\nwell aware of the risk factors,\u201d he said. \u201cThis past year, and I think
\nagain this year … [will] be more of the geopolitical environment,
\nwhether that\u2019s international or on domestic policy.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for the quarter itself, here were the top-line metrics:<\/p>\n
Earnings per share: $1.55 adjusted vs. $1.53 expectedRevenue: $14.61 billion adjusted vs. $14.69 billion expected<\/p>\n
Delta also announced it would buy 30 Boeing 787-10 Dreamliners, that’s helped to lift Boeing shares by 2.3%.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Delta Airlines reported earnings today and it was one of the strongest indications yet that there are two…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":405350,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[28,101],"class_list":{"0":"post-405349","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-economy"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=405349"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405349\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/405350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=405349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=405349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=405349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}