Delta sales guidance disappoints, CEO says airline expects lower demand around the election

Delta Air Lines expects to grow earnings in the fourth quarter, thanks to resilient travel demand and strong bookings for year-end holidays. The Atlanta-based carrier on Thursday forecast fourth-quarter adjusted earnings of $1.60 to $1.85 per share, compared with Wall Street estimates of $1.71, according to LSEG, and above the adjusted $1.28 per share it reported a year earlier. Revenue will likely rise between 2% and 4% from a a year earlier, compared with estimates of a 4.1% increase. The carrier warned it expects a 1-point revenue hit from lower demand before and after the Nov. 5 U.S. presidential election. “We do anticipate seeing a little choppiness around the election, which we’ve seen in past national elections,” CEO Ed Bastian said in an interview. “Consumers will, I think, take a little bit of pause in making investment decisions, whether its discretionary or other things. I think you’re going to hear other industries talking about that as well.” He added that holiday bookings are very strong. Delta reiterated that the CrowdStrike outage in July amounted to a 45-cent hit to adjusted earnings, which came in at $1.50 per share, slightly below analyst estimates. Delta struggled to recover after the outage, which took thousands of Microsoft Windows machines offline, and prompted the airline to cancel thousands of flights. The incident was a $380m hit to revenue, Delta said. Story has details.<br/>