Delta Stock Surges 10% Premarket As Airline Reinstates 2025 Profit Guidance After Trump Tariff Clouds Nearly Clear Out

Delta Air Lines (DAL) on Thursday issued a new profit forecast for 2025, which came in above Wall Street expectations as the carrier expects travel to stabilize in the latter half of the year after U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs discouraged Americans initially from traveling.

Delta stock rose nearly 10% in premarket trading. Retail sentiment around Delta improved to ‘extremely bullish’ from the ‘bullish’ territory a week ago, according to data from Stocktwits.

In April, Delta, along with a few other U.S. airlines such as American Airlines (AAL) and JetBlue Airways (JBLU), withdrew its annual expectations for the year, as the tariff war had resulted in economic uncertainty and a decline in consumer confidence during the first half of the year.

This prompted customers to postpone their travel plans and prioritize spending on essentials and goods as tariff-related price hikes were starting to take effect.

Delta, which is the first major U.S. airline to report earnings, now expects its 2025 adjusted profit forecast to be between $5.25 and $6.25 per share, with the midpoint of $5.75 above estimates of $5.38, according to data compiled by Fiscal AI.

That said, this is lower compared to the initial 2025 forecast Delta gave in January, which projected a profit exceeding $7.35 per share for the year.

Its second-quarter (Q2) earnings per share of $2.10 topped expectations of $2.06, while revenue of $15.51 billion came in lower than the analysts' estimates $16.21 billion.

Premium revenue continued to outpace main cabin revenue, growing 5% year-over-year. Loyalty revenue increased by 8%, and the American Express partnership rose by 10% to $2 billion.

CEO Ed Bastian told CNBC on Thursday that bookings have stabilized since April, although at lower levels than the airline expected at the start of the year.

For the third quarter, Delta expects adjusted profit of $1.25 to $1.75 per share, compared with expectations of $1.34.

“For the September quarter, we expect total revenue to be flat to up 4 percent compared to the prior year, with unit revenue trends expected to improve through the second half of the year,” said Glen Hauenstein, Delta's president.

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