Shares of Delta Air Lines Inc. DAL, -1.50% rallied 2.1% in premarket trading Thursday, after the air carrier reported fourth-quarter adjusted profit and revenue that beat expectations, as December revenue has recovered to nearly 80% of 2019 levels. The net loss was $408 million, or 64 cents a share, compared with net income of $1.1 billion, or $1.71 a share, in the same period in pre-pandemic 2019. Excluding nonrecurring items, adjusted earnings per share came to 22 cents, above the FactSet consensus of 14 cents. Revenue of $9.47 billion was down 17% from 2019, but was above the FactSet consensus of $9.02 billion. Load factor fell to 78% from 86% in 2019, and missed the FactSet consensus of 83.7%. The company said that while the omicron variant of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 significantly impacted staffing levels and disrupted travel, Delta’s operation has stabilized over the last week and returned to pre-holiday performance. “The recent rise in COVID cases associated with the omicron variant is expected to impact the pace of demand recovery early in the [first] quarter, with recovery momentum resuming from President’s Day weekend forward,” said President Glen Hauenstein. “Factoring this in to our outlook, we expect total March quarter revenue to recover to 72 to 76% of 2019 levels, compared to 74% in the December quarter.” The stock has slipped 1.0% over the past three months through Wednesday, while the U.S. Global Jets ETF JETS, -0.90% has lost 5.8% and the S&P 500 SPX, +0.28% has gained 8.3%.
