September Quarter 2019 Outlook

For the September quarter, Delta expects to deliver solid top-line growth and margin expansion.

Revenue Environment

Delta’s adjusted operating revenue of $12.5 billion for the June quarter improved 8.7 percent, $1 billion higher than prior year quarter. This revenue result marks a record for the company, driven by improvements across Delta’s business, including a ten percent increase in premium product ticket revenue and double-digit percentage increases in loyalty and third-party maintenance revenue. Cargo revenue during the quarter declined 17 percent driven by lower volumes and yield. Other revenue declined by $24 million as growth in loyalty and third-party maintenance was offset by $176 million lower third-party refinery sales.

Passenger Revenue by Geographic Region:

“With record passenger loads, customer satisfaction and $1 billion in revenue growth for the June quarter, demand for Delta’s customer-focused product and service has never been stronger. Our third quarter is off to a great start with a new highest revenue day on record on July 7th,” said Glen Hauenstein, Delta’s president. “We now expect revenue growth of six to seven percent for the year, a $3 billion increase over 2018, as we benefit from our multi-year pipeline of fleet, product, and loyalty initiatives.”

Cost Performance

Total adjusted operating expense for the June quarter increased $559 million versus the prior year quarter, with approximately 20% due to higher profit sharing expense. CASM-Ex was up 1.4 percent for the June quarter 2019 compared to the prior year quarter. This performance was driven by industry-leading operations, savings from the company’s fleet transformation and the One Delta efficiency initiative, which partially offset investments in our people and product. During the quarter, the company decided to accelerate retirement of its MD-90 fleet by two years to the end of 2022, which pressured CASM-Ex by approximately $60 million due to higher depreciation expense.

Adjusted fuel expense decreased $35 million, down two percent, relative to June quarter 2018. Delta’s adjusted fuel price per gallon for the June quarter was $2.08, which includes a $37 million benefit from the refinery.

Adjusted non-operating expense for the quarter was $60 million higher versus the prior year quarter, driven primarily by lower pension income and lower results from international equity partners.

Cash Flow and Shareholder Returns

Delta generated $3.3 billion of operating cash flow and $1.8 billion of free cash flow during the quarter after the investment of $1.4 billion into the business primarily for aircraft purchases and improvements. Year-to-date, the company has generated $5.2 billion of operating cash flow and $2.5 billion of free cash flow.

For the June quarter, Delta returned $497 million to shareholders, comprised of $268 million of share repurchases and $229 million in dividends. The company also completed repayment of the $1 billion short-term loan that was used to accelerate the repurchase of shares in the March quarter .

The Board of Directors today declared a quarterly dividend of $0.4025 per share, an increase of 15% over previous levels. This marks the sixth consecutive increase in Delta’s dividend since it was established in 2013. The September quarter dividend will be payable to shareholders of record as of the close of business on July 25, 2019, to be paid on August 15, 2019.

“With efficiency gains from our operations, fleet transformation, and One Delta initiatives, we have solid line of sight to achieve our 1% cost growth target for the year,” said Paul Jacobson, Delta’s chief financial officer.  “Our strong financial foundation and cash generation allow us to sustainably invest in the business, while maintaining our investment grade balance sheet and consistently returning cash to shareholders.  With our cash flow exceeding original expectations, we are on track to return $3 billion to our owners this year through share repurchases and our increased dividend.”

Strategic Highlights

In the June quarter, Delta achieved a number of milestones across its five key strategic pillars.

Culture and People

Operational Reliability

Network and Partnerships

Customer Experience and Loyalty

Investment Grade Balance Sheet

June Quarter Results

Adjusted results primarily exclude the impact of unrealized gains/losses on investments.

About Delta

Delta Air Lines (NYSE: DAL) is the U.S. global airline leader in products, services, innovation, reliability and customer experience. Powered by its 80,000 people around the world, Delta continues to invest billions in its people, improving the air travel experience and generating industry-leading shareholder returns.

Forward Looking Statements

Statements in this press release that are not historical facts, including statements regarding our estimates, expectations, beliefs, intentions, projections or strategies for the future, may be "forward-looking statements" as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All forward-looking statements involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the estimates, expectations, beliefs, intentions, projections and strategies reflected in or suggested by the forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the cost of aircraft fuel; the availability of aircraft fuel; the impact of fuel hedging activity including rebalancing our hedge portfolio, recording mark-to-market adjustments or posting collateral in connection with our fuel hedge contracts; the performance of our significant investments in airlines in other parts of the world; the possible effects of accidents involving our aircraft; breaches or security lapses in our information technology systems; disruptions in our information technology infrastructure; our dependence on technology in our operations; the restrictions that financial covenants in our financing agreements could have on our financial and business operations; labor issues; the effects of weather, natural disasters and seasonality on our business; the effects of an extended disruption in services provided by third parties; failure or inability of insurance to cover a significant liability at Monroe’s Trainer refinery; the impact of environmental regulation on the Trainer refinery, including costs related to renewable fuel standard regulations; our ability to retain senior management and key employees; damage to our reputation and brand if we are exposed to significant adverse publicity through social media; the effects of terrorist attacks or geopolitical conflict; competitive conditions in the airline industry; interruptions or disruptions in service at major airports at which we operate; the effects of extensive government regulation on our business; the sensitivity of the airline industry to prolonged periods of stagnant or weak economic conditions; uncertainty in economic conditions and regulatory environment in the United Kingdom related to the exit of the United Kingdom from the European Union; and the effects of the rapid spread of contagious illnesses.

Additional information concerning risks and uncertainties that could cause differences between actual results and forward-looking statements is contained in our Securities and Exchange Commission filings, including our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2018. Caution should be taken not to place undue reliance on our forward-looking statements, which represent our views only as of July 11, 2019, and which we have no current intention to update.

Note: The prior periods presented here have been recast to reflect adoption of certain new accounting standards.

Note: The prior periods presented here have been recast to reflect adoption of certain new accounting standards. Except for number of aircraft in fleet, consolidated data presented includes operations under Delta’s contract carrier arrangements.

The following table provides a reconciliation of cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash reported within the Consolidated Balance Sheets to the total of the same such amounts shown above:

Note: The prior periods presented here have been recast to reflect adoption of certain new accounting standards.

Note A: The following tables show reconciliations of non-GAAP financial measures. The reasons Delta uses these measures are described below. Reconciliations may not calculate due to rounding.

Delta sometimes uses information ("non-GAAP financial measures") that is derived from the Consolidated Financial Statements, but that is not presented in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the U.S. (“GAAP”). Under the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission rules, non-GAAP financial measures may be considered in addition to results prepared in accordance with GAAP, but should not be considered a substitute for or superior to GAAP results. The tables below show reconciliations of non-GAAP financial measures used in this release to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures.

Forward Looking Projections. The Company is not able to reconcile forward looking non-GAAP financial measures because the adjusting items such as those used in the reconciliations below will not be known until the end of the period and could be significant.

Pre-tax Income and Net Income, adjusted. We adjust pre-tax income and net income for the following items to determine pre-tax income and net income, adjusted for the reasons described below. We include the income tax effect of adjustments when presenting net income, adjusted.

MTM adjustments and settlements. Mark-to-market ( " MTM") adjustments are defined as fair value changes recorded in periods other than the settlement period. Such fair value changes are not necessarily indicative of the actual settlement value of the underlying hedge in the contract settlement period. Settlements represent cash received or paid on hedge contracts settled during the period (defined below).

Equity investment MTM adjustments. We record our proportionate share of earnings/loss from our equity investments in Virgin Atlantic and Aeroméxico in non-operating expense. We adjust for our equity method investees' hedge portfolio MTM adjustments to allow investors to better understand and analyze our core operational performance in the periods shown.

Unrealized gain/loss on investments. We record the unrealized gains/losses on our equity investments in GOL, China Eastern, Air France-KLM and Korean, which are accounted for at fair value in non-operating expense. Adjusting for these gains/losses allows investors to better understand and analyze our core operational performance in the periods shown.

DGS sale adjustment. Because we sold DAL Global Services, LLC ("DGS") in December 2018, we have excluded the impact of DGS from 2018 results for comparability.

Operating Revenue, adjusted and Total Revenue Per Available Seat Mile ("TRASM"), adjusted. We adjust operating revenue and TRASM for refinery sales to third parties to determine operating revenue, adjusted and TRASM, adjusted because refinery sales to third parties are not related to our airline segment. Operating revenue, adjusted and TRASM, adjusted therefore provide a more meaningful comparison of revenue from our airline operations to the rest of the airline industry. We adjust for the DGS sale for the same reason described above under the heading pre-tax income and net income, adjusted.

Operating Margin, adjusted. We adjust operating margin for MTM adjustments and settlements and third-party refinery sales for the same reasons described above under the headings Pre-tax income and net income, adjusted and Operating Revenue and TRASM, adjusted.