Tag: Ed Bastian

United CEO Scott Kirby Doubles Down on Brand Loyalty Amid Shutdown

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United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby said his company is doubling down on brand loyalty. Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

United Airlines, which has increasingly tapped into premium offerings and brand-loyalty programs, expects surging revenue in these areas to deliver a strong finish to 2025—so long as the ongoing government shutdown doesn’t dampen travel demand.

During United’s third-quarter earnings call today (Oct. 16), CEO Scott Kirby told analysts that the airline’s cancellation rates and on-time performance have remained steady so far. “There hasn’t really been a measurable impact in the first couple of weeks of October. [But] the longer this drags on, obviously the risks will grow on both of those points, so I hope our politicians will figure out how to get in a room, compromise and get something done,” he said.

The shutdown, now in its third week, is disrupting flights nationwide due to staffing shortages at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The shutdown has placed added strain on air traffic controllers, many of whom are expected to work with reduced or no pay until the government reopens.

Kirby said most controllers continue to show up for duty, but warned that a prolonged shutdown would eventually take a toll. “Every day that goes by, the risk to the U.S. economy grows. I hope we will avoid an unforced error here,” he said.

Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian raised similar concerns last week, cautioning that “cracks will soon emerge” if the shutdown isn’t resolved “beyond another 10 days or so.”

United and Delta pivot to premium offerings

United and Delta—the nation’s two largest airlines by market capitalization—are better positioned than most to weather potential turbulence. Both carriers have surged ahead of rivals by doubling down on premium seats and cultivating customer loyalty.

Between July and September, United reported $15.2 billion in revenue, up 2.6 percent year-over-year but slightly below analyst expectations. Net income came in at $949 million, a modest 1 percent decline. A bright spot is the premium cabins, where revenue rose 6 percent, while loyalty program revenue jumped 9 percent from a year ago. The company expects that loyalty-driven momentum will help it post record-high operating revenue in the final quarter of 2025.

To sustain that growth, United plans to invest more than $1 billion next year in enhancing its customer experience. The upgrades include adding more seatback screens and extra legroom, increasing food spending by 25 percent and equipping its entire fleet with SpaceX’s Starlink wifi by 2027.

Delta has already benefited from a pivot to luxury. The airline reported better-than-expected quarterly revenue and profit earlier this month and expects its premium cabins to surpass economy-class sales for the first time next year.

Kirby said United’s success reflects a long-term bet on a fundamental shift in traveler behavior. For decades, he noted, airlines were viewed as interchangeable commodities mainly chosen on price and schedule. But as most carriers now offer comparable routes and fares, loyalty and brand differentiation have become the new battleground.

“What we’ve proven, and continue to prove in the last few years, is that it is possible to transform into a brand-loyal airline,” he said.

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Alexandra Tremayne-Pengelly

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October 16, 2025
Delta Flies Higher on the Wings of Luxury Travel

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CEO Ed Bastian said Delta has so far been unaffected by the U.S. government shutdown. Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

Between the U.S. government shutdown and ongoing economic uncertainty, it’s a turbulent time for airlines. But not for Delta, the largest American airline by market capitalization, which has emerged from the industry’s recent challenges largely unscathed as its investment in high-end travel begins to pay off.

Delta shares jumped more than 4 percent today (Oct. 9) after the Atlanta-headquartered airline reported better-than-expected revenue and profit for the July-September quarter. Quarterly sales reached $15.2 billion, up 4.1 percent year-over-year, while net income rose 11 percent to $1.42 billion. Strong demand for premium travel helped lift results: sales in Delta’s premium unit climbed 9 percent to $5.8 billion, even as main cabin revenue dipped 4 percent to $6 billion.

The airline could soon earn more from premium seating than from economy for the first time. Delta had previously forecast that milestone for 2027, but it may now happen as early as next year, according to the airline’s president, Glen Hauenstein. “We see that there are many, many more opportunities in premium in the coming years,” he told analysts today.

Some of those opportunities lie in Delta’s key markets like Los Angeles, Boston, New York and Seattle due to their concentration of a “considerable amount of premium” customers, CEO Ed Bastian said on today’s call.

The airline is also expanding its high-end offerings by outfitting nearly 1,000 aircraft with free WiFi and deepening partnerships with American Express, Uber and YouTube. Delta has even ventured into retail through collaborations like its recent lounge set project with Spanx.

Rebounding from the ‘spring swoon’

Back in March, things looked less promising when Delta slashed its profit forecast amid economic concerns tied to the Trump administration’s tariffs. The company refers to that period as the “spring swoon.” Since then, Delta has rebounded and offered stronger-than-expected guidance for the fourth quarter of 2025, projecting total revenue growth between 2 and 4 percent over the next three months.

Meanwhile, the U.S. travel industry faces headwinds from the federal government shutdown that began in early October. Flights across the country have been delayed as Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) facilities report staffing shortages. The country has also seen a “slight tick-up in sick calls” from air traffic controllers—who, like other essential workers, are expected to work without pay during the shutdown, said Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy at a recent press conference.

Delta has weathered shutdowns before. During the 35-day federal shutdown that began in 2018, the airline lost about $1 million per day in revenue, Hauenstein said. This time, the impact has been smaller, in part because Delta is less dependent on the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport—one of the hubs most affected by staffing disruptions.

“While we are monitoring potential impacts from the U.S. government shutdown, we have not seen a material effect to date,” added Hauenstein.

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Alexandra Tremayne-Pengelly

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October 9, 2025
Atlanta-based Delta suspends employees over comments about Charlie Kirk’s murder

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Several Delta Air Lines employees have been suspended because of comments they made on social media about the murder of conservative political activist Charlie Kirk.

CEO Ed Bastian released a memo across the Atlanta-based company on Friday saying he was made aware of several employees whose social media comments “went well beyond healthy, respectful debate.”

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Those employees have been suspended pending an investigation. The number of those involved was not released.

“Whether we’re in uniform and on the clock, online or out in public, our colleagues, customers and communities expect us to reflect Delta’s values – integrity, care and servant leadership,” Bastian wrote in the memo.

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Kirk, 31, was shot and killed during an event for his nonprofit, Turning Point USA, on the campus of Utah Valley University on Wednesday afternoon. He was pronounced dead after being rushed to a nearby hospital.

On Friday, the FBI and Utah Governor Spencer Cox announced the accused shooter, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, was in custody.

Kirk’s death has sparked heated debate on social media, with many mourning the loss of the activist and others criticizing him for the controversial beliefs he was known for.

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September 13, 2025
A top Delta executive is leaving weeks after the airline’s slow response to tech outage

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Delta Air Lines said Friday that its chief operating officer will leave the company next week after a little more than a year in the airline business to take another job.

The departure of Michael Spanos comes a few weeks after Delta canceled thousands of flights during a botched recovery from a global technology outage,

Spanos spent most of his career at PepsiCo and the Pepsi Bottling Group and was CEO of amusement-park operator Six Flags Entertainment before joining Delta in June 2023. He is one of three executive vice presidents of the Atlanta-based airline.

In a regulatory filing, Delta gave no reason for Spanos’ departure — only that he would receive severance benefits that he is due under the company’s plan for officers and directors. Spanos received compensation valued at $8.6 million last year, mostly in stock awards.

CEO Ed Bastian said in a note to employees that Spanos told him “earlier this summer” he was considering leaving Delta. A spokesperson said this happened before the technology outage.

Bastian wrote that Spanos will move in September to another company, which he did not identify. The CEO credited Spanos with improving Delta’s performance, and added that Delta will not name a new chief operating officer.

Chief operating officers typically run the day-to-day affairs of a company and report directly to the CEO. They are often considered the second-ranking executive, but at Delta, President Glen Hauenstein is generally seen as playing that role.

Delta was hit harder than any other U.S. carrier by last month’s technology outage that started with a faulty upgrade from cybersecurity-software provider CrowdStrike to computers running on Microsoft Windows.

Other airlines recovered within a couple days, but Delta canceled about 7,000 flights over five days as it struggled to reposition crews and match them with planes.

The U.S. Transportation Department is investigating the meltdown, and Delta is pursuing $500 million in damages from CrowdStrike and Microsoft. The tech companies say Delta refused help and made misleading claims.

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August 26, 2024
Delta partners with startup Riyadh Air as it plans to offer flights to Saudi Arabia

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More on the Saudi Arabia, 9/11 lawsuit

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Delta Air Lines said Tuesday it has entered into a partnership with startup Riyadh Air with the goal of operating flights between the United States and Saudi Arabia.

Riyadh Air, which plans to begin passenger flights next summer, is backed by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign-wealth fund and is part of the country’s plan to diversify its oil-based economy and boost tourism.

Atlanta-based Delta and Riyadh did not give a timetable for beginning flights or financial details around their partnership. Their CEOs said neither airline is taking an ownership stake in the other.

Delta CEO Ed Bastian and Riyadh Air CEO Tony Douglas said they envision selling tickets on each other’s flights — a practice known as codesharing — that requires approval from the U.S. Transportation Department.

They said the partnership could grow into a full-blown joint venture. That step would require immunity from U.S. antitrust laws for the carriers to collaborate on prices and share revenue.

Bastian said he expects much of the early traffic to be passengers flying to the United States, but that it will even out over time as tourism to Saudi Arabia grows.

No U.S. airline flies to Saudi Arabia. Saudia, the kingdom’s flag carrier, operates nonstop flights between Saudi Arabia and New York, Dulles International Airport outside Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles.

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July 9, 2024
Delta CEO admits airline went too far in reducing benefits for frequent flyers

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Delta CEO admits airline went too far in reducing benefits for frequent flyers – CBS News

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Delta CEO Ed Bastian has admitted that the airline went too far in dramatically reducing or eliminating access for American Express credit cardholders to its Sky Club lounges, after the controversial move drew outrage among flyers. Delta had said the move was designed to reduce large crowds. Jo Ling Kent reports.

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September 28, 2023
Delta executives say they’re not seeing the drop in airfares that the government reports

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Delta Air Lines executives say they’re not seeing the drop in average airfares that federal officials believe are contributing to lower inflation.

The Labor Department’s latest consumer price index this week showed average airfares falling 8% from May to June on a seasonally adjusted basis.

“We’re not seeing the same, and it’s a different data point than what we have,” Delta President Glen Hauenstein said on the airline’s second-quarter earnings call. He dismissed the Labor Department’s methodology as a “ample of a sample.”

Delta Air Lines is reporting record profit and revenue in the second quarter, as summer travelers pack planes and head off on vacation.

Officials say a Delta flight landed roughly but safely at the Charlotte Douglas International Airport on Wednesday without its front landing gear extended.

A consumer class action lawsuit filed Tuesday claims Delta Air Lines inaccurately billed itself as the world’s “first carbon-neutral airline” and should pay damages.

Analysts agreed with Delta’s assessment. JPMorgan’s Jamie Baker said the government figure excludes corporate and most premium travel and is drawn heavily from discount-airline service. He blamed the CPI number for causing airline stocks to fall Wednesday, when the Labor Department report came out.

Delta executives seemed far more willing to accept the Labor Department’s calculation that average fares last month were 19% lower than they were in June of last year.

CEO Ed Bastian said it is important to remember that at this time last year, many people were just beginning to travel after two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, but airlines weren’t yet fully staffed. As a result, demand was far stronger than supply.

“People didn’t care where they were going or how much they spent. They just wanted to go someplace,” he said. “We were seeing fares up 30%, 40%, 50%” for some domestic flights. “That’s obviously not sustainable.”

The Labor Department’s monthly CPI report indicated that lower prices for airline tickets, gasoline and used cars in June helped produce the lowest inflation since early 2021 — 3% compared with a year earlier.

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July 14, 2023
Airlines back more spending, staff to fix failed FAA system

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DALLAS (AP) — Airline executives bristled last year when government officials, led by Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, blamed the carriers for causing thousands of flight cancellations and mistreating their customers.

The shoe is on the other foot now after a technology outage at the Federal Aviation Administration grounded planes for a time earlier this week, but airline leaders are taking a different tack.

They’ve avoided harsh words and score-settling. Instead they’re calling on Congress and the Biden administration to give the FAA more staff and more money to upgrade its systems.

“The FAA, I know, is doing the very best they can with what they have, but we need to stand behind the FAA,” Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian said Friday.

American Airlines CEO Robert Isom praised the FAA for “calling a time out” Wednesday morning — temporarily barring planes nationwide from taking off — while it fixed a system that provides safety and other information to pilots and airline dispatchers. He said it showed that safety comes first.

“Investment is required,” Isom told CNBC. “It’s going to be billions of dollars, and it’s not something that is done overnight.”

The airline executives, of course, have an interest in making sure that the FAA can function. The agency manages the nation’s airspace and hires air traffic controllers who must juggle a mix of passenger and cargo jets, smaller private planes, helicopters and drones.

Bastian said the FAA’s lack of adequate staffing is causing longer flight times and making it harder to operate in congested parts of the Northeast and Florida.

“There is no question that the investment in a modernized air-traffic control system will drive a tremendous amount of efficiencies as well as growth, which will mean better service for the American public,” he told reporters.

Airline executives no doubt want to remain in the good graces of the bureaucrats who regulate them. Isom went out of his way to praise the leadership ability of Buttigieg, who heads the FAA’s parent organization.

Airlines have been pushing the FAA to modernize the air-traffic control system for years. They argue that a faster and complete rollout of a so-called NextGen plan to modernize the national airspace system will benefit the traveling public by making flights more efficient and reliable.

The FAA’s technology is certain to be a key issue this year, as Congress considers legislation that would govern the agency for the next five years. But the initial response from Capitol Hill has been to demand answers from Buttigieg about this week’s debacle.

Late Friday, more than 120 members of Congress said in a letter to Buttigieg that “the FAA was well aware of the issues facing the NOTAM system” which failed this week. NOTAM stands for notice to air missions.

In the letter signed by 71 Republicans and 51 Democrats they said Congress directed the FAA in 2018 to modernize the NOTAM system, and FAA requested money to replace “vintage hardware” that supports it.

“Coupled with this week’s failure, significant questions are raised about how long these issues have existed and what is needed to prevent such issues from occurring again,” the lawmakers said. “Again, this is completely unacceptable.”

Buttigieg’s office declined to comment on the letter but said in a statement that the NOTAM system had been functioning properly since Wednesday with no unusual flight delays or cancellations.

Among those signing the letter were Rep. Sam Graves, R-Mo., the new chairman of the House Transportation Committee, and Rep. Rick Larsen, D-Wash., the top-ranking Democrat on the committee.

Earlier in the week, Graves suggested that the breakdown of the FAA alert system was related to “the number of empty desks and vacant offices at the FAA,” including the lack of a permanent administrator since the last one quit in March 2021.

Graves has not commented about FAA funding levels.

Larsen said in an interview earlier this week that he is optimistic Democrats and Republicans can put aside partisan differences and help the FAA improve its technology.

“This was a major disruption to the traveling public, and they didn’t deserve it,” he said.

On the Senate side of the Capitol, Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., said the Commerce Committee which she leads will look into the outage. She has also promised to look into airline outages like the one that struck Southwest last month.

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January 16, 2023
Delta Air Lines sales, profits top estimates in strong finish to 2022
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Delta Air Lines Airbus A330neo or A330-900 aircraft with neo engine option of the European plane manufacturer, as seen departing from Amsterdam Schiphol AMS EHAM International airport.

Nicolas Economou | NurPhoto | Getty Images

Delta Air Lines‘ fourth-quarter profit topped analysts’ expectations, and its revenue grew from three years ago, the latest signs of consumers’ willingness to shell out for air travel.

The airline generated $13.44 billion in the final three months of 2022, topping the $11.44 billion in sales it brought in three years earlier. High costs ate away at some of Delta’s profits, but its net income still totaled $828 million, down from $1.1 billion in the same three-month period of 2019.

Delta CEO Ed Bastian said in a news release the carrier “rose to the challenges of 2022, delivering industry-leading operational reliability and financial performance.”

Here’s how Delta performed in the fourth quarter, compared with Wall Street expectations based on Refinitiv consensus estimates:

Adjusted earnings per share: $1.48 vs. $1.33 expected.

Adjusted revenue: $12.29 billion, excluding refinery sales, vs. $12.23 billion expected.

Airlines have largely been upbeat about the fourth quarter, despite concerns about a recession and weakness from some retailers and other businesses. On Thursday, American Airlines hiked its revenue and profit forecast for the period, sparking a broad rally in the sector.

That was even after severe winter weather disrupted flights coast to coast over the year-end holidays, prompting mass cancellations. Southwest Airlines in particular struggled to recover and said its meltdown could cost it more than $800 million. American and Southwest report on Jan. 26.

Delta expects to earn 15 cents to 40 cents a share on an adjusted basis in the first quarter of 2023 and for its sales to increase 14% to 17% over the same quarter of 2019. It forecast full-year 2023 earnings of $5 to $6 a share.

Delta’s shares were down more than 4% in premarket trading.

This is breaking news. Check back for updates.
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January 13, 2023
Delta says free Wi-Fi coming to many US flights next month

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LAS VEGAS (AP) — Delta Air Lines will provide free Wi-Fi service on most of its U.S. flights starting in February, CEO Ed Bastian announced Thursday at the CES technology trade show.

Bastian said by the end of the year, the airline will outfit more than 700 planes with high-speed, satellite-based broadband service from T-Mobile. It plans to expand free Wi-Fi to international and Delta Connection flights by the end of 2024. The service will use equipment from Viasat, a U.S.-based satellite broadband provider.

“It’s always struck me that when we fly, we fly to connect,” Bastian told The Associated Press in an interview. “But when we’re in the sky, we disconnect.”

Many airlines are upgrading internet access on their planes so passengers can stay connected or stream entertainment on their electronic devices, but they usually have to pay for it. New York-based JetBlue Airways already provides free Wi-Fi service to passengers, but Delta’s announcement puts it ahead of its largest rivals: American, United and Southwest.

“People want to be connected, and the fact that airlines can’t connect in the sky is something that I felt we had to figure out,” Bastian said, noting that the rollout of the $1 billion project was accelerated by the pandemic-triggered shutdowns in 2020, when most of the airline’s planes were grounded.

Customers will need an account in Delta’s SkyMiles frequent-flyer program, which is free to join, to use the Wi-Fi service. There is no limit on the number of devices passengers can connect to the inflight Wi-Fi. More than 500 planes will have the free service as of Feb. 1.

Delta’s announcement at CES comes on the heels of Southwest Airlines canceling 15,000 flights around Christmas and leaving holiday travelers stranded around the U.S.

The disruptions started with a winter storm and snowballed when Southwest’s ancient crew-scheduling technology failed.

Bastian declined to comment on his rival’s issues but said Delta for “many years” has invested in its scheduling technology.

“And we are continuing to improve the ability for crews to connect efficiently with the airplane,” he said.

___

Koenig reported from Dallas.

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January 7, 2023