Shares of Delta Air Lines Inc. DAL, -3.55% rose 1.6% in premarket trading Wednesday, after the air carrier reported a narrower-than-expected second-quarter loss as revenue fell less than forecast, amid “accelerating demand” for air travel. Net income fell to $652 million, or $1.02 a share, from $1.44 billion, or $2.21 a share, in the same period in prepandemic 2019. Excluding nonrecurring items, such as benefits related to government payroll support programs, the company swung to a per-share loss of $1.07 from earnings per share of $2.35 in 2019, but beat the FactSet loss consensus of $1.38. Revenue dropped 43% from 2019 to $7.13 billion, above the FactSet consensus of $6.20 billion, as passenger revenue fell 53% to $5.33 billion but topped expectations of $5.01 billion. Load factor fell to 69% from 88%, just shy of the FactSet consensus of 69.8%. For the third quarter, the company expects total revenue to be down 30% to 35% from 2019 levels. “Domestic leisure travel is fully recovered to 2019 levels and there are encouraging signs of improvement in business and international travel,” said Chief Executive Ed Bastian. “We are also opportunistically acquiring aircraft and creating upside flexibility to accelerate our capacity restoration in 2022 and beyond in a capital-disciplined manner.” Delta’s stock has edged up 2.8% year to date through Tuesday, while the U.S. Global Jets ETF JETS, -2.64% has gained 3.9% and the S&P 500 SPX, -0.35% has climbed 16.3%.
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