Delta chief warns of hit to air travel from Omicron

The head of Delta said that he expected the Omicron coronavirus variant to affect bookings early next year even as passengers return to the skies for holiday travel. Ed Bastian, Delta CE, said Thursday that Omicron had hit bookings in January, largely for international travel. The dip shows up “wherever . . . countries have put up travel restrictions”, he added, including Ben Gurion airport, near Tel Aviv, and London’s Heathrow airport. Travellers to the UK must now take a PCR coronavirus test before departure and after arrival. “It’s not going to impact our holidays,” he said. “It will have some impact on our first quarter.” The pandemic has played havoc with the airline industry, as governments have restricted travel to contain the spread of the virus. New variants, first Delta and now Omicron, have sent airline stocks plunging, only to recover as passengers absorb the news and continue to fly. United CE Scott Kirby said two weeks ago that while he did not expect to cut flights to Europe or Africa next month, the number of people flying on transatlantic routes may decrease. Qantas also said on Thursday that bookings for overseas flights had dropped significantly. Chief executive Alan Joyce noted Omicron had hurt “people’s confidence to book international trips in particular, but we haven’t seen large numbers of cancellations”. Since the winter months were traditionally a weak time for travel demand, Delta was “battened down in terms of capacity” for the first quarter, Bastian said. The outlook for spring and summer was “optimistic”, he added. The Atlanta-based company said on Thursday that it expected to fly 90% of the capacity it recorded in 2019 next year and to reach 100% the following year. Delta also revised its Q4 guidance, saying that it expected to post an adjusted pre-tax profit of $200m, instead of a loss. For 2022, the company planned “to deliver meaningful profitability” en route to delivering earnings per share of more than $7 in 2024.<br/>