US airlines posted record profits in the third quarter of 2022 after a stronger dollar drove Americans to travel to Europe more than ever last summer, generating strong returns for airlines.
According to Arab Net, Delta recently announced a net income of $695 million for the third quarter, after it achieved record returns of about $13 billion, 3% higher than the same period in 2019, i.e. before the Corona closures.
Delta said that international travel, especially to Europe, and high ticket prices supported these results in particular, prompting the company to employ 20,000 people since the beginning of 2021.
The airline is working to fully restore its capacity to pre-pandemic levels by next summer, supported by increased demand for business and leisure aviation despite fears of a downturn in the economy.
It expects to achieve more profits and returns of more than 5% in the fourth quarter of the year compared to the fourth quarter of 2019.
Delta and other airlines have been struggling with rising labor and fuel costs. Delta's fuel bill for the third quarter rose by about 48 percent, compared to 2019 to $3.32 billion. Even when removing fuel costs from the equation, costs per available seat mile rose 23%, compared to 2019 in the third quarter.
The American Airlines Group also expects that its revenues for the third quarter of the year will rise by about 13%, compared to the same period in 2019, to exceed $13 billion, with net income that may touch $1 billion levels.
As for United Airlines, whose results are supposed to be released soon, it expects to increase its capacity by 30%, next summer, compared to the summer before the pandemic in 2019. The company will reopen its destinations for some countries that were canceled at the time of the outbreak of the virus.
United Airlines is expected to achieve revenues of about 12.7 billion dollars and a net income of about 745 million dollars.
