Delta Forecasts Return to Profits This Year But With Little Help From Corp Travelers
Skift Take
As with earlier attempts to forecast the recovery, Delta's optimistic outlook may prove overly bullish as the industry continues to struggle.
Delta Air Lines is mapping out a three-phase recovery plan for the return of corporate travelers, prompting executives to forecast the optimistic possibility of profits by summer.
A new survey of the Atlanta-based carrier’s largest corporate customers found that 40 percent plan to resume 2019 levels of business travel this year and another 11 percent in 2022, Delta CEO Ed Bastian said during the company’s fourth quarter earnings call on Thursday.
Conversely, another 42 percent of large corporations were unsure when they would return to 2019 travel levels and 7 percent said they would never fully return.
“All indications are corporate travel is ready to start coming back and will come back pretty aggressively beginning the second half of this year,” said Bastian.
The return of corporate road warriors is critical for the airlines’ recovery. While a smaller percentage of overall flyers than those going on holiday or to visit relatives, business travelers spend more on things like expensive last-minute tickets and posh business class seats. This makes a corporate recovery key to the industry’s aims to stop burning cash and, at some point, begin generating profits again.
Not everyone is as optimistic about business travel. A December survey by Atmosphere Research only found one per
