Delta Air Lines anticipates that 2022 will be a profitable year, as it expects business and international air travel recovery to gain momentum once travel restrictions ease.
Delta CFO Dan Janki said: ”We have a compelling strategy that we believe will allow us to exceed 2019 financial performance, deliver industry-leading margins and generate significant cash to de-lever the balance sheet over the next three years.”
In an interview with CNBC, Delta Air Lines chief executive Ed Bastian also reaffirmed that he is “very optimistic about our spring and summer 2022 outlook”. He added that the winter holiday bookings have helped the airline to power its fourth quarter earnings.
The airline now expects to generate an adjusted pre-tax profit of approximately $200 million in the fourth quarter of 2021.
“Omicron is not going to impact our holiday bookings,” Bastian said, adding that the Omicron variant will have some impact in the first quarter of 2022.
Due to the Omicron variant, which was detected in late November 2021, countries across Asia and Europe rushed to tighten border controls for travelers arriving from southern Africa. The new discovery came as Europe and North America enter the winter holiday season, a lucrative period for airlines all over the world.