Delta shares take off as it cashes in on loyalty and legroom

The airline said 2025 is positioned to be its best financial year ever.

1/10/25 9:24AM

Delta had a good 2024, but it says this year’s going to be even better.

In its most recent earnings report, released Friday, the airline said it’s positioned for its best financial year in a century. Delta Air Lines shares took off more than 9% premarket.

The fourth quarter saw premium and SkyMiles continue to pay off for Delta, which boasts the largest loyalty program in aviation. Diversified revenue, including premium seating and income from its co-branded credit card with American Express, contributed 57% of Delta’s total annual revenue last year.

Premium ticket sales climbed 8% on the quarter, compared to just a 2% bump in main-cabin ticket sales. Delta’s said the vast majority — about 85% — of seats it plans to add this year will be premium.

Delta’s Amex partnership continued to pay off, and the airline said it received about $2 billion from American Express on the quarter. Back-of-the-napkin math puts Delta’s total 2024 credit-card revenue at $7.4 billion, up from 2023’s $6.8 billion. Delta and American Airlines have more than doubled their revenue from selling miles to credit-card companies over the past eight years.

Earlier this week, Delta announced updates to its 120 million-member SkyMiles program, including dumping longtime ride-hailing partner Lyft for its much larger rival Uber and adding YouTube Premium to its in-flight options for members.

Max Knoblauch10/24/25

Premium seats help push airlines higher following third-quarter results

Shares of American Airlines are climbing toward the carrier’s best trading day since August 12, when ultra-budget rival Spirit issued its initial warning about its ability to survive. American’s shares are up more than 7% on Friday afternoon.

Investors’ optimism comes a day after American posted a better-than-expected full-year earnings forecast. In a call with investors, American said that it’s ramping up its premium cabin offerings.

“Our ability to grow capacity in premium markets will be further supported as we take delivery of new aircraft and reconfigure our existing fleet. These efforts will allow us to grow our premium seats at nearly two times the rate of main cabin seats,” CEO Robert Isom said. American CFO Devin May said that nose-to-tail retrofits of certain wide-body jets will bump the number of premium seats available on those planes by 25%.

Extra legroom has been a boon for major carriers, particularly this quarter. Delta Air Lines said its premium product revenue grew 9% in Q3, compared to a 4% drop in economy seat revenue. Similarly, United Airlines said its premium revenue grew 6%, outpacing economy. Shares of both airlines were up more than 3% on Friday.

Carriers with less exposure to first- and business-class tickets like Southwest Airlines and JetBlue didn’t see the same amount of momentum on the day.