By Dhirendra Tripathi
Investing.com – Delta Air (NYSE:DAL) stock traded 9.5% higher Tuesday after the carrier raised its annual guidance for the current quarter and said travel demand is robust.
The airline now sees revenue for the March quarter at 78% of 2019 levels, an improvement from the 72%-76% forecast it gave two months ago, according to Reuters.
Delta expects capacity in the first quarter to be around 83% though this comes in at the lower end of the 83%-85% range it gave earlier.
The airline said it expects to deliver “meaningful profitability” in 2022.
A separate Reuters report quoted CEO Ed Bastian as saying that Delta had enjoyed the busiest booking day in its history last week, even though many Asian routes remained suspended, and he was seeing the strongest demand in his career.
"We really haven't seen any impact at all, in terms of reluctance to travel from U.S. travelers coming to Europe," Bastian said, adding that he was not at "a point of nervousness" about rising oil prices.
Oil prices have retreated about 28% in just over a week, the crude oil falling below the $94/bbl-mark today.