Ed Bastian adds in an interview with the TV channel CNBC that the past six weeks have been characterized by a clear and broad decline in confidence in the future among both household and corporate customers, which is clearly evident in the deteriorated booking situation.
"Difficult to predict"
Delta Air Lines – the most profitable of the American airlines – is the first major listed company on Wall Street to report its quarterly report for the first quarter of the year. The result from that quarter was slightly higher than expected, while the revenue of 13 billion dollars was in line with expectations.
But the forecast for the full year 2025 has been scrapped. It pointed to a profit this year of 7.35 dollars per share and will, according to Delta, be updated later this year when the consequences of the trade war initiated by the US President Donald Trump become clearer.
With the level of uncertainty we see, and the extent of the changes that are currently taking place on a daily basis in global trade, it is very difficult to predict how politics will look like for the rest of the year, says Bastian.
One of the losers on Wall Street
He adds that the plans to expand the aircraft fleet during the year are no longer current.
Delta is one of the heavy losers on Wall Street this year, with a stock price drop of over 40 percent in value so far this year.
