Delta Air Lines: cost pressure drives margin compression in 2017. Revenue generation is paramount

Although Delta Air Lines expects to sustain strong pre-tax profits in 2017, cost inflation and continued unit revenue pressure are creating margin compression for the airline. Delta anticipates its operating margin for the year will fall below the 17% to 19% targets it has set for itself over the long term.

Delta acknowledges that in the past its ability to predict a return to positive unit revenue accurately has been dismal; but the company believes it will post a flat unit revenue performance in 1Q2017. The airline also concedes that when it set long-term margin targets earlier in 2016 it believed unit revenues would rebound faster than has ultimately materialised.

The company is characterising 2017 as a transition year in which it is crucial to restore unit revenues in line with cost escalation, concluding that it could be the first year in many that could test the durability of its business model. But Delta is encouraged by positive momentum in many of its markets, and the slowing of yield degradation in the key corporate sector.