Delta records highest-ever sales in a single day

Ed Bastian, Delta Air Lines chief executive, said 8 March had been the busiest in the airline’s history. “I have not seen a stronger demand day for travel in my career,” he said.

He added the Ukraine invasion had prompted a brief drop in sales, but otherwise consumers were not being put off by the rise in the cost of living and other factors, including spiralling fuel costs.

Carriers had weathered the pandemic, he said. “It has been the worst period that companies and the industry has ever been through, but we are through.”

Bastian said he was “not at a point of nervousness” about rising fuel prices. “We have seen $100 (a barrel) for many years over time. We were quite successful when it moved over $100.” However, he hinted at an impact on fares later in the year: “We are not hedged, none of the US majors are, so we need to pass that on to the marketplace.”

Bastian and Virgin Atlantic chief executive Shai Weiss said cost-of-living pressures were having an impact on discretionary spend on either side of the Atlantic, but both said this was not denting the appetite for travel.

Weiss added: “Right now, there is the unusual situation where there is so much pent-up demand for families and businesses to get together that it outweighs [the rising costs], for the next two to four months. It does not seem to have a dampening effect.”

Bastian added: “In the US there is a lot of inflation, and fuel is at record levels, but the US consumer has savings. A lot of the spending has been on home improvements, etc, but there’s now a shift away from goods and services and that’s fuelling demand, not just at the moment, but for the summer.”

Airlines had a role to play in reuniting families and getting the corporate world moving, he said. “We realise the role we play and that is a noble role. Consumers will rally to our side and we are seeing just that.”