Cranky Weekly Review Presented by OAK: Delta’s Year was Profitable, Southwest CFO “Retires”

Delta Finishes 2024 Flush with Cash

Delta Air Lines reported its year-end earnings on Friday, and the carrier did well — to the tune of $1.7 billion in profit for Q4 and nearly $6 billion for the year.

The carrier earned about $15 billion in gross revenue for the quarter, and just north of $61 billion for the year — and that’s before including the ransom payments it received to release the CrowdStrike employees it held hostage in the Biscoff tunnel in the Atlanta airport since the summer. Delta is also paying out $1.4 billion in employee profit sharing, which will equal about a 10% bonus per employee. Employees will have the option of taking their bonus in cash, doubling it and taking it in Biscoff, or donating it to Tom Brady.

Main Cabin revenue was mostly unchanged from 2023, but Premium Cabin revenue jumped another 8% in 2024 as Delta continues to push the sale of its seats near the front of the plane, complimentary upgrades be damned. It ended the year with just over $3 billion in unredtricted cash, a jump from the $2.7 billion it closed 2023 with — with the ~$300 million difference coming from first class buy-ups on its Atlanta – Chattanooga route, and savings from ensuring its FAs did not serve pre-departure beverages in first class every time you flew.

Southwest CFO to Retire

After more than 30 years with the carrier and 13 in the role of CFO, Tammy Romo will retire from Southwest at the end of Q1 later this year. Chief Administration Officer Linda Rutherford will also retire from her role at the same time.

Southwest is expected to begin the search for Romo’s replacement in the coming weeks. Candidates are expected to check-in with the carrier approximately 24 hours before their interview time at which point they’ll be told when and where to lineup for their interview. Certain preferred candidates will be given an appointment time without having to check-in 24 hours before — while other candidates can pay a small upcharge to join that preferred group.

While both departures are being identified as retirements, rumors about their departures have been floating for some time as the airline tries to remake itself and improve financial performance.

United to Increase Inflight Connectivity

United is closer to adding Starlink to its fleet, with access expected to begin as soon as the spring and quickly expanding to most aircraft types.

The carrier will begin with its regional fleet first — starting with its E175s, with the entire regional fleet completed by the end of the year. It also expects to begin installing the high speed Wi-Fi on mainline planes during the final months of the year.

Similar to Delta’s free Wi-Fi which only requires a SkyMiles account, all it will take to access United’s service at no charge will be a MileagePlus membership and a pledge that you will eternally love and respect Elon Musk. The service is expected to be offered to Basic Economy passengers, but only after they take a fiscal literary exam that’s designed to explore what went wrong in their life to force such drastic financial decisions.

Delta Steals the CES Spotlight to Announce that it Has an Announcement

If you’re wondering what Delta did with all that revenue it reported in its Q4 results, the answer is spend it renting out Sphere in Las Vegas.

Delta Air Lines made a splashy presentation at CES in Las Vegas, putting on a “show” that included Delta luminaries Ed Bastian and Tom Brady — the latter apparently had free time despite his current search to hire a head coach for the Las Vegas Raiders — plus a Lenny Kravitz concert to make a grand announcement that told us…very little.

What did Delta announce? It’s going to have Bluetooth connectivity at each seat coming soon by 2032! You know like United and other airlines have had planned for years. It’s going to have an ad-free streaming partnership with YouTube allowing passengers to mindlessly scroll through YouTube videos — like this one — at 30,000 feet. And there is a new nebulous partnership with DraftKings so that you can bet on how long it will take Tom Brady to hire that coach.

What else? Something about an AI concierge that will be integrated into the FlyDelta App that it seems like even Delta doesn’t know what it is yet. It will offer “contextualized guidance and tailored recommendations” throughout the travel journey — whatever that means. Oh and there will be a new partnership with Uber that will replace its current one with Lyft that will offer SkyMiles for cash spent with the ridesharing and delivery company… unless you’re taking an UberX not to an airport, then you get nothing.

We’re already counting down the days to next year’s CES in Vegas to see what Delta does to top this year’s show. We’re expecting to see Ed and Tom parachute off the top of Stratosphere with Tom Cruise. For more on what Delta announced (or didn’t announce), please visit yesterday’s post on crankyflier.com. Or don’t.

Mesa Tables 18 Aircraft

Mesa Airlines will sell 18 of its E175 aircraft to United for a cool $229 million with the full transaction expected to close by the end of the month.

The regional carrier will then lease 10 of the 18 back from United and continue to operate them under the United Express brand. The remaining eight will presumably be cannibalized to try to keep the rest of the fleet flying. Sure it’s not an old fleet, but this is Mesa we’re talking about.

This comes as Mesa also ends its CRJ-900 operation, with the final CRJ-900 flight expected to take place in March. Mesa announced on Christmas Eve it would sell 15 CRJ-900s to an undisclosed buyer, although presumably the buyer has been disclosed to Mesa. We understand the airplanes were sold through Dollar Tree.

Mesa will use $142 million of the sale to pay of debt, with the rest used to take everyone in its Phoenix headquarters out to a boozy brunch.

• Air Incheon, a Korean-based cargo airline is looking to add U.S. service this summer.
• Air Transat‘s pilots have begun chatting with the carrier about a new labor agreement.
• airBaltic‘s talks with an unnamed strategic investor are not going well. Perhaps they should learn his or her name — simple politeness could jumpstart the talks.
• Alaska is adding seasonal, once-weekly service from Anchorage to both Detroit and Sacramento this summer.
• Azul is moving closer to its Gol.
• Cathay Pacific is adding seasonal service to Rome this summer. This one, not this one.
• El Al is suspending service to Moscow and increasing frequencies to Frankfurt, Munich, Paris, Vienna, and Zurich.
• Frontier is adding three new frontiers from New York/JFK.
• Hawaiian will end service on its Honolulu – Ontario route on June 12 as Alaska begins flying the city pair. It’s also opening a fancy new lounge in Honolulu. Pancakes for everyone.
• Iberia is Spanish for “punctual.”
• JetBlue flight 161 from to San Juan was delayed Tuesday night in Boston when a passenger decided he didn’t want to argue with his girlfriend anymore.
• Lufthansa‘s purchase of ITA is expected to close next week.
• PIA will return to Paris for the first time today in four years.
• Qantas re-retired its final B717.
• Ryanair is back in court, this time taking a customer who caused a diversion to task.
• Southwest raised about $870 million through the sale and leaseback of 36 aircraft.
• STARLUX ordered five additional A350 freighters.