Delta Air sees improvement in unit revenue trends, shares rise

(Reuters) -Delta Air Lines said on Thursday it was seeing an improvement in third-quarter unit revenue trends, citing strength in travel demand and moderating capacity across the industry.

The airline also said it was expecting its third-quarter profit per share to be in the top end of its previous forecast range of $1.70 to $2.00, excluding the 45 cents per share impact related to a global cyber outage in July.

Shares of the carrier were up nearly 5% in early trade.

A software update in July by global cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike (NASDAQ:CRWD ) triggered system problems for Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT ) customers, including many airlines.

The disruptions persisted at Delta and the Atlanta-based carrier canceled about 7,000 flights over five days. It faces an investigation from the U.S. Transportation Department for the disruptions.

The airline lowered its expectations for current-quarter revenue to a range of flat to up 1%, compared with 2% to 4% growth projected earlier.



Delta had said it expects a direct revenue hit of $380 million from the outage in the current quarter owing to refunds it owes to customers for canceled flights and compensation in cash and frequent flyer miles.

It had reported additional expenses of $170 million related to customer expense reimbursement and crew-related costs.

Source: Investing.com