How Delta Plans to Best Its Record-Setting Year
Skift Take
Airlines have been boom-and-bust businesses for as long as almost anyone can remember. But has Delta Air Lines cracked the secret code? Or is it just better at managing expectations?
An airline's results can serve as a proxy for the economy's overall health, in the home market, and even abroad. By measuring future bookings, airlines know how confident businesses are about the near term. By tracking leisure sales, they learn how consumers feel about what's coming since few will book a Hawaii vacation nine months hence if they're fearful they may lose their jobs.
In the near term, both groups must feel fine, according to Delta Air Lines, which reported annual results so strong on Tuesday the company's CEO, Ed Bastian, called 2019 “the best year in our history” on its fourth-quarter earnings call.
Delta last year reported net income of $4.77 billion, an increase of 21 percent, year-over-year. Its revenues were $47 billion, up 6 percent, year-over year. Delta’s fourth quarter was also strong, with the airline reporting net income of $1.1 billion, up about 8 percent year-over-year, on total revenues of 11.4 billion.
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