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Major US airline flying domestic and international routes, known for premium service and a large co-branded credit-card loyalty program.
Major US airline flying domestic and international routes, known for premium service and a large co-branded credit-card loyalty program.
Earns from ticket sales, strongest in premium cabins, and from selling SkyMiles points to American Express, which pays Delta to award them to cardholders, a steady high-margin stream not tied to flying. It owns a refinery, Monroe Energy, to help cover jet fuel, and minority stakes in partners such as LATAM, Air France-KLM and Virgin Atlantic.
Moat: narrow (network effects, brand, scale). Hub-and-spoke network scale, slots/gates and a loyalty program create switching costs and brand loyalty.
Headquarters: Atlanta, Georgia, US · Founded: 1928 · Employees: 100,000
Size Delta Air Lines (DAL) is a United States Industrials company (Airlines) with a market value of $57.4B, the 226th largest of 3,117 United States companies the cockpit tracks. Shares closed at $87.20 on 6 Nov 2026.
Performance Over six months the shares gained 19.2%, against +9.1% for the median peer and -1.1% for the United States market (cap-weighted) — 2nd highest of 8 in its peer set.
Growth Revenue grew 14.1% over the last twelve months (peer median +10.9%); the operating margin is 7.4% (peer median 7.5%).
Valuation It trades at 13.4× forward earnings against a peer median of 15.3× (2nd cheapest of 7).
Price implies For today's price to make sense, revenue must grow about 10% a year for seven years (Req g). Recent delivered growth is +30%, so the hurdle is -20 pp: the price already allows for a slowdown.
Capital Return on invested capital runs 0.8 points above its cost of capital (10.4% WACC).
Credit Delta Air Lines has 4 bonds outstanding ($2.88B), rated BBB- by the agencies and trading like BBB at a weighted spread of 93 bp.
Short interest Short interest is 3.2% of the free float (15 Oct 2026).
Next results Next results expected around 8 Jan 2027 (exchange calendar; dates can move).
| TTM | FY2025 | FY2024 | FY2023 | FY2022 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $71.8B | $63.4B | $61.6B | $58.0B | $50.6B |
| Revenue growth | — | +3% | +6% | +15% | — |
| Gross profit | $10.8B | $10.7B | $10.9B | $10.8B | $7.25B |
| EBITDA | $7.87B | $8.27B | $8.51B | $8.60B | $5.64B |
| Net income | $3.29B | $5.00B | $3.46B | $4.61B | $1.32B |
| Free cash flow | $3.02B | $3.84B | $2.88B | $1.14B | -$3.00M |
| Capital expenditure | $4.98B | $4.50B | $5.14B | $5.32B | $6.37B |
| Total debt | $18.8B | $20.3B | $22.8B | $27.3B | $30.6B |
The default views of Competitor Analysis ▸ Charts, drawn from the same data. Open them in the cockpit to change the axes, pin companies and read every value.
| Company | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines DAL | $57.4B | +19% | +14% | 7% | 13.4× | 9.9% |
| United Airlines UAL | $36.6B | +13% | +12% | 6% | 13.6× | 7.8% |
| American Airlines AAL | $8.73B | -1% | +12% | 2% | n/a | n/a |
| Southwest Airlines LUV | $21.8B | +8% | +14% | 5% | 13.7× | n/a |
| Deutsche Lufthansa LHA.DE | $11.4B | +7% | +8% | -1% | 9.7× | n/a |
Peer set: Industry: the same industry and sector in any market, nearest in size. This is the same default set the interactive Competitor Analysis opens with.
| Measure | DAL | Peer median | Rank in peer set |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1-month return | +6.2% | +5.8% | 4th highest of 8 |
| 6-month return | +19.2% | +9.1% | 2nd highest of 8 |
| Distance from 52-week high | -8.9% | -18.6% | 2nd highest of 8 |
| Revenue growth (TTM) | +14.1% | +10.9% | 2nd highest of 8 |
| Operating margin | 7.4% | 7.5% | 4th lowest of 8 |
| Forward P/E | 13.4× | 15.3× | 2nd cheapest of 7 |
| Growth the price implies (Req g, 7 yrs) | 9.9% | 7.1% | 3rd most demanding of 7 |
| Growth delivered (Del g) | +30.0% | +36.2% | 2nd lowest of 7 |
| Hurdle (Req g minus delivered) | -20.0 pp | -29.7 pp | 3rd most demanding of 7 |
| ROIC minus cost of capital | +0.8 pp | +3.1 pp | 4th lowest of 8 |
| EV / EBITDA | 9.2× | 7.6× | 3rd most expensive of 8 |
| Net debt / EBITDA | 1.9× | 1.0× | 3rd most indebted of 8 |
| Bond spread | 93 bp | 123 bp | 2nd tightest of 5 |
| Company | Market | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g | Delivered g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines DAL | United States | $57.4B | +19% | +14% | 7% | 13.4× | 9.9% | +30.0% |
| United Airlines UAL | United States | $36.6B | +13% | +12% | 6% | 13.6× | 7.8% | +30.9% |
| Ryanair Holdings PLC Sponsored ADR RYAAY | United States | $29.5B | +2% | +9% | 13% | 17.0× | 6.4% | +56.7% |
| International Consolidated Airlines IAG.L | United Kingdom | $25.3B | +9% | +4% | 14% | 8.3× | -3.9% | +32.4% |
| InterGlobe Aviation INDIGO.NS | India | $22.4B | +22% | +13% | 8% | 105.8× | 25.5% | +42.2% |
| Southwest Airlines LUV | United States | $21.8B | +8% | +14% | 5% | 13.7× | n/a | n/a |
| Singapore Airlines C6L.SI | Singapore | $17.2B | +11% | +5% | 12% | 30.1× | -11.0% | +40.0% |
| Air China 0753.HK | Hong Kong | $15.4B | -27% | +11% | -4% | n/a | 11.7% | +18.9% |
Delta Air Lines has 4 bonds outstanding with $2.88B face value. The agencies rate it BBB-; its bonds trade like BBB. Weighted yield 5.41%, a spread of 93 bp over government bonds.