Delta Expects Big Return of Business Travelers This Fall, Recession or Not

Delta Air Lines is confident on a robust corporate travel recovery this fall despite broader concerns that the U.S. could fall — or has fallen — into an economic recession.

“There is such pent-up demand for access to our products," Delta CEO Ed Bastian said during the airline's second quarter results call on Wednesday. "And, we’re not going to satisfy that thirst in the space of a busy summer period. There’s a lot of that demand to come.”

Bastian's lieutenant, the Atlanta-based carrier's president Glen Hauenstein, added that domestic corporate demand was at 80 percent of three years ago in the second quarter, while international was at 65 percent. In addition, a survey of Delta's corporate customers indicates that they plan to increase business travel come September, particularly internationally and in sectors — which he did not name — that have come back the least from the pandemic. Hauenstein also cited a recent Morgan Stanley Global Corporate Travel Survey that found that corporate travel could recover to 84 percent of 2019 in the second half of the year, which he described as "20 points above the June quarter."

And, specifically on the threat of a recession, Bastian said that Delta has not seen "any meaningful pullback in demand" — both leisure and corporate — to date.

Delta is the first airline to report second quarter results, and give an outlook for the