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

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Glen Hauenstein: We do those corporate surveys, and that’s why we do them to see what our corporate partners are thinking about in terms of future travel and it was actually the last one we did, which is for future travel, was the best survey we have had since pre-pandemic in terms of their enthusiasm that more people would be flying in future months than we are flying in current or past months. As I said in the call, we are not counting on that in our current revenue forecast, because sometimes that doesn’t come to fruition, but there’s a sense of optimism from this pent-up demand for business travel that we see could potentially offset any weakness in the general economy. And we are taking a very cautious look, but — and we are counting on it being stable and not growing dramatically, but it looks like people think it will grow.

Ed Bastian: Mary, this is Ed.

Mary Schlangenstein: Great.

Ed Bastian: I — you see in the — in our country a lot of businesses struggling to get their employees back into the office and I think this is tied to that. As companies return and employees return to office, you are going to see another step up in my opinion of return to more normal trends, including improved business travel. You think of a lot of the big accounts we serve are consultancies legal firms, accounting firms, it’s tough for them to get out on the road if they don’t have the offices open of their clients and their customers. So I think that’s the — a little bit of the choppiness that Glen was referring to, because that companies are intending to open and have had some — there’s been some stalls going on there, but I do think as we progress over the course of the year, you are going to see more and more of business being done like it used to be done than ever before.

Mary Schlangenstein: Okay. And if I can just follow up, I understand about your survey, but are there bookings that you can see at this point beyond the March quarter that gives you any idea of whether that weakness will continue? And then when you said you are counting on that corporate demand being stable, but not growing dramatically, that’s a change though from what you had been seeing. Is that correct, you had been seeing growth, but now you are seeing it more stable?

Glen Hauenstein: Clearly, in the early parts of the pandemic recovery, we saw some accelerated growth. I think we have been pretty consistent at the past couple of quarters and we see some stability in the booking curve at about 80% of revenue. So as you know, business travel usually has the shortest advanced purchase windows and is mostly close in. So we would not have any further visibility beyond the next 60 days to 90 days that would be of any significant help in shedding that water.

Mary Schlangenstein: Great. Thank you.

Operator: Thank you. Your next question is coming from Edward Russell from Skift. Your line is live.

Edward Russell: Hi. Thanks for taking my question. I wonder if you could comment on if Delta saw any benefit from Southwest Airlines operational issues in December, was there an uptick in bookings people buying less ticket sent out, any color would be great?

Glen Hauenstein: Sure. As you know, we had our own weather operations during the peak Christmas holiday travel period, and we saw after that, when we were fully recovered and Southwest was still not back in full swing that we had an uptick in our bookings. That’s trended in highly competitive with Southwest markets a little bit into January, but we think that will resolve itself over the next six months to 12 months.

Edward Russell: Thank you.

Tim Mapes: Thank you, Edward. Matt, we have time for one final question, if we could, please.

Operator: Certainly. The last question is coming from Robert Silk from Travel Weekly. Your line is live.

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