Thread by @WandrMe

The $DAL earnings out this morning are every bit as awful as one might expect.

Retirement of the 737-700 fleet confirmed and some 763ER and A320s also out, though counts not provided.

Earnings call now running and the news isn't good. "Business travel has not returned in any meaningful way...we remain cautious on the pace of recovery for the balance of the year," says Bastian.

Q3 is expected to be 20-25% of YoY capacity. Ouch.

'NPS have never been higher," says Bastian.

Silver lining, I suppose, for having so few passengers.

"We continue to believe it could be two years or more until we see a sustained recovery." - Bastian

As of last night we had over 17,000 employees voluntarily sign up to leave the company. Thousands more on unpaid leave into the Fall.

$DAL still hopes to avoid furloughs or layoffs, but no guarantees.

"We remain grounded in the strengths that are the core of Delta's values."
//
Strange use of "grounded" by an airline executive right there.

$DAL domestic operations burning $17mm/day, int'l burning $10mm/day.

DL used to see no-show rates around 3%. Now up to high single digits. Makes planning harder, Hauenstein says.

$DAL #PaxEx

"There will be no cash CapEx on new aircraft at Delta for some time, at least through the end of the year."

Bastian notes that Airbus is cooperating with the carrier's needs to adjust deliveries.

"We're in the south. We're going back into a more closed setting. But that's for the goal of reopening later this Summer or in the Fall from a better standpoint." $DAL's Bastian hopes that scaling back the reopening now will pay of in the coming months.

[Corporate customers'] impression is that it is not only safe, it is significantly better than their impression of air travel pre-pandemic.

While corporations might not be traveling some individuals are.
-Bastian

What drives the blocked middle seat decision? "Consumer confidence."

"We'll get there over the course of the end of the year or into early next year. But [right now] I'd rather add more flights back, more capacity into the system" than sell the middle seats. -Bastian #PaxEx