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Delta boosted its profit forecast for 2019 as blistering travel demand, lower fuel costs and a grounded Boeing 737 Max gave it the muscle to command higher fares. The world’s third-largest airline expects to earn as much as $7.25 per share this year, above its prior $6 to $7 per share estimate, Delta said Thursday as it reported second-quarter earnings. The raised expectations came a day after rival American Airlines Group boosted its own outlook, citing the same market trends. The gains reported by two major airlines show that Americans’ fervor to fly remains unchecked amid strong US economic data, while Boeing’s troubles with its workhorse jet have carried a silver lining for the industry by tightening seat supply. “The outlook is strong in terms of continued top-line growth,” Delta CEO Ed Bastian said. Five of Delta’s top 10 record revenue-generation days have occurred in the past 30 days, he said. The Max grounding offered Delta “a marginal benefit” on domestic summer capacity, which is 1% to 2% lower industrywide than was planned before regulators banned the plane from flying, Bastian said. “We are always looking to take share wherever we can,” he said of travelers who might have moved to Delta. “There’s no question we benefited somewhat from that.”<br/>

Italian infrastructure group Atlantia said it would look into the possibility of buying a stake in ailing national airline Alitalia, but it looks unlikely that it will be ready by the government’s deadline of Monday. Atlantia’s board said after meeting on Thursday that it had asked CEO Giovanni Castellucci to “look into the sustainability and effectiveness of the industrial plan regarding Alitalia, including the shareholders and the management team.” Industry Minister Luigi Di Maio, who is struggling to put together a consortium of firms to save the flagship carrier for the third time in a decade, has said he wants a deal by Monday. He has been working for months on a plan to hook it up with state-owned railway group Ferrovie dello Stato, and also has a commitment from Delta to take a stake, but still needs to find another partner. Atlantia’s board told Castellucci to report back with his findings at a future meeting whose date was not set, making it unclear how the company could be ready in time to commit to taking a stake by Di Maio’s Monday deadline. Delta’s CE Ed Bastian said Thursday the company, which is seeking to grow internationally, remains committed to investing around $100 million to acquire about 10% of Alitalia. “I think Alitalia has a promising future with the right ownership structure in place,” Bastian said.<br/>

Dutch airline KLM has launched a campaign asking people to fly less. The video and open letter from CEO Pieter Elbers asks: “Do you always have to meet face-to-face?” and “Could you take the train instead?” The campaign aims to encourage travellers and the aviation industry to consider the environmental impact of flying. It describes the “shared responsibility” of travellers and airlines to “fly more responsibly”, and says those in the industry need to “create a sustainable future for aviation”. The aviation industry accounts for an estimated 2%-3% of the manmade CO2 emissions in the world – a figure that is expected to increase with growing population, trade and wealth. KLM’s message comes at a time when the flight-shaming movement is becoming more influential and there is a rise in holidays by rail. Airline passenger growth is also at its lowest in more than three years, according to a traffic report by European airport trade association Airports Council International Europe. The KLM campaign, which marks the airline’s 100th anniversary, calls on passengers to consider train travel for shorter distances and to replace face-to-face meetings with video calls. It also suggests packing lightly to reduce baggage weight so that planes uses less fuel, and to consider offsetting CO2 emissions. The airline’s carbon-offset programme uses passenger contributions for reforestation projects, including a new tropical forest in Panama. However, critics have suggested that instead of asking the public to be aware of their actions, KLM, and other airlines, need to be considering solutions that lie with the industry itself. <br/>