Delta Air Lines, Inc. (NYSE:DAL) Q2 Earnings Top Views Despite Revenue Miss

Delta Air Lines, Inc. (NYSE:DAL) shares edged higher in Wednesday’s pre-market session, after the air-transportation company reported Q2 earnings above analysts’ consensus despite lower-than-expected revenue, and CEO Richard Anderson said he expects the company’s Q3 results to be “even stronger.”

DAL was up 1.4% at $38.20 in recent pre-market trading, in a 52-week range of $18.53 to $42.66.

Net income rose to $801 million, or $0.94 per share, from $685 million, or $0.80 per share, a year earlier. Excluding one-time items, it earned $1.04 per share in the latest quarter, up from $0.98 per share in the prior-year period and above the $1.03 per share expected on average by analysts polled by Capital IQ.

Total operating revenue rose 9.4% to $10.62 billion, missing analysts’ mean estimate of $10.7 billion. Traffic increased 5.0% on a 3.2% increase in capacity. Passenger revenue jumped 9.1% while unit revenue rose 5.7%.

“Delta’s performance this quarter, with 9% top-line growth, more than 4 points of margin expansion and $1.5 billion of free cash flow, shows the financial strength and resilience of our company,” Anderson said. “We expect our September quarter performance will be even stronger, as we expand our operating margins to 15-17% and further improve our profitability.”

Delta President Ed Bastian said for Q3, the company expects unit revenue to increase 2% to 4%, “driven by continued corporate and domestic strength, along with benefits from our revenue initiatives.”