The summer travel season was even worse than expected for Delta Air Lines, which said Tuesday that it lost $5.4 billion in the third quarter as people hunkered down at home during the pandemic.
Delta officials pushed back their timetable for breaking even, from year-end to next spring, as their previous expectation that covid-19 would be contained proved too rosy. The airline's shares fell 2.67% on Tuesday.
However, Delta's executives said passengers are starting to return and bookings for Thanksgiving and Christmas are looking up.
"It's slow, but it's steady -- week by week, they are coming back," Chief Executive Officer Ed Bastian said of passengers.
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The number of people screened at U.S. airports is down 65% this month, compared with last October, but that's better than the 68% decline in September, the 71% drop in August and the 96% plunge in mid-April.
Atlanta-based Delta's loss compared with a year-ago profit of $1.5 billion and nearly matched the loss of $5.7 billion in the second quarter, when the pandemic brought air travel to a near standstill. Since then, Delta has concentrated on hoarding cash -- it raised $9 billion by mortgaging its frequent-flyer program -- and cutting costs.
Delta reduced its cash-burn rate to $18.4 million a day in September from $26.1 million in July and August, and Bastian predicted it could reach break-even cash flow by spring. Investors are watching cash as a gauge for how long carriers can last in the industry's current depressed state.