Delta's fuel bill outgrew its profit
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What the chart shows
Delta Air Lines cut its full-year profit forecast on Friday, and chief financial officer Erik Snell put it down to a single cost: "All of it's fuel." The chart sets Delta's fuel expense beside its operating profit for each July-to-September quarter since 2021.
In 2021 the airline earned US$2.2 billion of operating profit and spent US$1.6 billion on fuel. Fuel has been the larger figure every year since 2022, and this quarter it reached US$4.4 billion in the filing while operating profit was US$1.5 billion. That filed line is measured differently from the US$4.1 billion fuel bill Delta reported, up 62%.
Investors shrugged because demand is holding up: adjusted revenue rose 16% to US$17.6 billion. Chief executive Ed Bastian expects to absorb a US$6 billion jump in fuel costs this year, so the jet fuel price is now the figure that decides how much of the forecast survives.
The story behind it
Delta cut its profit forecast by almost a quarter, and its shares didn't move Read the edition →On the calendar
The US releases that move markets, in New Zealand and Australian time. Economic calendar →The numbers
Fuel expense and operating profit in each July-to-September quarter, 2021 to 2026, in US$bn. Filed fuel expense is a different measure from the story's US$4.1bn.
| Fuel expense | Operating profit | |
|---|---|---|
| Q3 2021 | 1.6 | 2.2 |
| Q3 2022 | 3.3 | 1.5 |
| Q3 2023 | 2.9 | 2.0 |
| Q3 2024 | 2.7 | 1.4 |
| Q3 2025 | 2.6 | 1.7 |
| Q3 2026 | 4.4 | 1.5 |
How we make these charts: one chart a day from a story in the edition, drawn from the figures the story names and checked against the sources named on the chart before it is published. General information only, not financial advice.
