The chief executive of Delta Air Lines says the incoming Trump administration will be a “breath of fresh air” for airlines after what he calls government “overreach” under President Joe Biden.
The airline industry has chafed under consumer-protection regulations imposed by the Biden administration. And Delta is facing a federal investigation into its slow recovery from a global technology outage this summer.
Delta CEO Ed Bastian made the comment as he and fellow Delta executives prepared to host Wall Street analysts at an investor day Wednesday in Atlanta.
Bastian noted that President-elect Donald Trump campaigned on a pledge to reform the federal government and reduce its size.
The airline executive said Trump promised “to take a fresh look at the regulatory environment, the bureaucracy that exists in government, the level of overreach that we have seen over the last four years within our industry. I think that will be a breath of fresh air.”
Southwest Airlines CEO Robert Jordan struck a similar tone after a speech last week in Dallas.
“I think there is a general thought that the new administration could be a little more business-friendly,” Jordan said. “We are hopeful for a DOT (Department of Transportation) that is maybe a little less aggressive in terms of regulating or rule-making.”
Delta used its investor day to build support for the company, which reported a profit of $2.6 billion in the first nine months of this year after earning an industry-leading $4.6 billion last year.
The airline stood by its previous forecast that adjusted profit in the fourth quarter will be between $1.60 and $1.85 per share. The company said its 2025 revenue will rise by a mid-single-digit percentage over 2024. Analysts expect a 6% increase, according to a FactSet survey.
Consumer advocates are wary of a second Trump administration, fearing that it could try to roll back a rule requiring automatic refunds after canceled flights and another that requires airlines to advertise the full price of fares upfront, including mandatory fees and taxes.
On Monday, the airline industry trade group praised Trump’s pick for transportation secretary, Sean Duffy, a former Republican congressman from Wisconsin and reality-TV star who is a co-host of “The Bottom Line” on Fox Business. Duffy lobbied for U.S. airlines and their unions during a dispute with Persian Gulf carriers.
But Accountable.US, a watchdog nonprofit group, said putting Duffy in charge of the department that oversees airlines was a sign that Trump is “putting his friends and their corporate special interests ahead of American consumers.”
Bastian did not specify which Biden regulations he considered overreach, but Delta and other carriers are suing the Transportation Department to kill a rule requiring greater transparency over fees that the carriers charge their passengers.
The group Airlines for America said the rule would confuse consumers by giving them too much information. An appeals court panel blocked enforcement of the rule while the airlines’ lawsuit goes ahead.
Airlines also oppose an inquiry that the administration recently launched into their frequent-flyer programs. Delta has received more than $2.4 billion in revenue from its loyalty program so far this year.
But the hardest blow against Delta could come from a Transportation Department investigation into the airline’s slow recovery from a technology outage in July. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said investigators were focusing on whether Delta’s treatment of passengers affected by canceled and delayed flights violated federal consumer-protection rules.
Southwest Airlines reached a $140 million settlement after a Transportation Department investigation into a similar but larger breakdown in service in December 2022.
Delta initially said it was cooperating with the investigation. In October, Delta sued CrowdStrike, the cybersecurity provider whose faulty upgrade to Microsoft computers triggered the outage.
—David Koenig, Associated Press airlines writer
