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Investing.com – Delta Air Lines stock (NYSE:DAL) traded 0.3% lower in Thursday’s premarket as the airline said its September-quarter revenue is likely to be at the lower end of the guidance it gave in July.
The company said the recent rise in Covid-19 cases has suppressed demand in the second half of the current quarter. It had guided for a 30%-35% fall in its July-September adjusted total revenue from the previous quarter’s $2.6 billion.
The company said it is incurring higher costs to support restoration of the services and ensure adherence to operational reliability. Staff costs have risen, too, owing to the spread of the Delta variant. All this could inflate non-fuel costs by around 15% compared to the previous guidance of 11%-14%, it said.
Delta said demand exceeded expectations in July but that pace of recovery paused as Covid cases spikes and businesses delayed reopening. It said the environment remains choppy though booking trends have begun to stabilize.
The airline is reorganizing its schedules accordingly, it said.
