To hear it from Delta Air Lines, happy days are here again, with travelers gladly paying sharply higher fares just to get on an airplane and go somewhere this summer.
Delta said Wednesday that it expects second-quarter revenue will be back to pre-pandemic 2019 levels, even with fewer flights. The airline said revenue per seat should be up to 8 percentage points better than it originally expected.
However, the Atlanta-based airline is facing surging prices for jet fuel. Other expenses—primarily labor—are spiking too. Delta expects non-fuel costs to soar up to 22 percent above 2019 levels on a per-seat basis, more severe than a mid-April forecast of 17 percent….