Delta said hursday it would spend more than $30m to offset 13m metric tons of carbon emissions over 10 months last year as part of its pledge to help combat climate change. The Atlanta-based company said its medium-term goal is to replace 10% of its jet fuel, which is currently refined from fossil fuel, with sustainable aviation fuel by the end of 2030. Delta also said it cut emissions by retiring more than 200 older aircraft early in 2020 as it dealt with a plunge in demand from the coronavirus pandemic. Replacement planes will be 25% more fuel-efficient, the US airline said. In February 2020, Delta announced plans to invest $1b over the next decade in initiatives like offsets, sustainable aviation fuel and carbon sequestration that would limit the impact of global air travel on the environment, the first airline to make a commitment of that scale. That followed moves in Europe by easyJet to offset emissions on all its flights and by BAand Air France to do the same on their domestic flights.<br/>
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Delta expects that domestic travelers will return in sufficient numbers this summer for the carrier to become profitable in the third quarter, CEO Ed Bastian said. “I really do believe it’s going to be a robust travel period,” he said Thursday. “There are great bargains out there for consumers.” International markets, however, are about a year away from being able to reopen “at any scale,” Bastian said. Varying travel restrictions and quarantine requirements worldwide have made corporations and individuals hesitant to resume cross-border trips. The CEO’s comments build on a broad industry expectation that Americans weary of a year of coronavirus-related restrictions will return to the air as more people are vaccinated and infection rates slow. Domestic travel remains at about 40% of 2019 levels, extending airlines’ losses as most carriers continue to spend millions more dollars than they bring in on a daily basis. While it’s “a little early” to know for sure, Bastian said he’s optimistic that Delta will hit its projections of breaking even on cash flow in the second quarter and reporting a profit in the third. That assumes, though, that “vaccinations continue to roll out.”<br/>