Delta Air Lines has warned of drops in revenue and a potential recession for the US economy amid Trump’s trade tariff wars – a strategy the aviation giant’s CEO called “the wrong approach.”
Noting that “growth has largely stalled”, Delta’s CEO Ed Bastian told CNBC on 9 April 2025 that “we’re acting as if we’re going into a recession,” and “everyone is going into a defensive posture. As a result of that, if that continues, and we don’t get resolution soon, we’ll probably end up in a recession.”
Corporate travel and low-fare seats not selling
The airline, which comes first for revenue and brand value among the world’s largest carriers, and sits second (behind American Airlines) for passenger numbers, has seen a previous 10% year-on-year rise in corporate travel go flat since February. “Historically, corporate travel has been the first thing, one of the easiest things, to minimize if you’re a company,” Bastian said. “If we continue on in this elongated sense of uncertainty, no question: You’ll see continued reductions in corporate travel.”
In addition, the juddering consumer confidence means lower-fare seat sales in the main cabin are also down, the firm said. As a result it is rolling back on previous plans to boost its “available seat miles”, anticipating that sales would stagnate over the year. Correspondingly it will push back deliveries of new Airbus craft, in order to mitigate new duties caused by Trump’s pursuit of trade tariffs.
Forecasts revised
In comments to investors, Bastian highlighted the “broad economic uncertainty around global trade” and stepped back from previous forecasts for record profits in 2025, saying it is now “hard to know how this is going to play out, given that this is somewhat self-imposed.” In implicit criticism of Trump’s strategy and the trillions wiped off stock markets as a result, the CEO said he was “hopeful that sanity will prevail and we’ll move through this period of time on the global trade front relatively quickly.”
BREAKING: Delta Air Lines, $DAL, cut its growth plans and said it can't reaffirm its 2025 financial guidance. because the trade war is hurting bookings. pic.twitter.com/nGnGfFE81o
— Grit Capital (@Grit_Capital) April 9, 2025
Previous quarterly forecasts by Delta predicted that revenue would go up by between 7% and 9% but the latest revenue report put growth at only 3.3% – matching the company’s adjusted figures. Revenue indications for Q2 are now wobbling anywhere between a rise of 2% and a decrease of 2%. Profit margin hopes have been dashed too, despite less expenditure on fuel.
