Delta Air Lines, Inc. (NYSE:DAL) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

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Ed Bastian: Yeah.

Glen Hauenstein: And about 20 points in terms of RASM. I think as we continue to build our core hubs out we will see, that’s one of the things we are counting on is acceleration of profitability in those core hubs and driving efficiency so we are getting them back to scale. As we mentioned in our Investor Day, we are already at scale in our coastal cities. That was our priority, just because we thought it was a once in a lifetime opportunity during the pandemic and so that was our priority to ensure that we came out in a good position there. I think we are very happy with the positions we have established there and now it’s back to the core where we think it’s actually easier lifting.

Catherine O’Brien: Thank you very much.

Operator: Thank you. Your next question is coming from Ravi Shanker from Morgan Stanley. Your line is live.

Ravi Shanker: Thank you. Good morning, everyone. Ed, you said in your prepared remarks that you have never seen a more constructive industry backdrop. Black Swan event aside, what do you see are probably the biggest risks or things to watch out for the industry in 2023? Is it your previous response on kind of infrastructure and things that’s outside of your control or kind of what are you looking at?

Ed Bastian: Well, thanks, Ravi. I — that’s right. I think the most important thing that Delta we can do is to continue to restore confidence back to the traveling public. We know the traveling. The public wants to travel in outsized amounts that we see continuing and we have to do our very best not to disappoint them as they return to the skies, I think, 2022 was very difficult. In that regard, demand clearly exceeded our ability to supply it for lots of ways, including in the service levels with the exceptional degree of service that we want to provide our customers. And I think we all in the industry owe it to our customers to make sure we don’t fly in excess of our capabilities. So I think that’s the single biggest thing that we all need to pay attention to and so I wouldn’t call it a Black Swan risk other than just trying to stay within our capability.

Ravi Shanker: Understood. And maybe as a follow-up maybe for Glen. Can you just unpack your thoughts on corporate in the near term, a little bit more, I think, that’s, obviously, one of the big focus areas for investors right now. You said 96% of corporate in your survey say that they are going to be kind of flat to up in the near-term, but obviously, macro is really choppy. We saw some of the hotel data kind of coming into January take a bit of a step down. What are you seeing in terms of your booking curve kind of any signs at all on cracks and corporate demand given where macro is?

Glen Hauenstein: We have had our highest post-pandemic days in terms of corporate booking over the last week or 10 days. So we see a very strong post-holiday demand set. We are in kind of a strange period right now because you over 2019. This is an MLK weekend and MLK weekend was next weekend. So I think once we get past MLK, we will give you a better view. But we are counting on it to stay in that roughly 80%. That’s not — the survey would indicate that it’s better than that. So I think that’s — if it does materialize is better than that, that’s upside for our forward looking forecasts.

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