Delta Air Lines (DL, Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson) will “meaningfully” reduce capacity in the current quarter as it waits for global fuel prices to ease, chief executive Ed Bastian said during the airline’s first-quarter 2026 earnings call.

“The war in the Middle East has driven an unprecedented spike in jet fuel, with prices roughly double what they were earlier in the year,” Bastian said, adding that Delta is focusing on controllable factors amid a “high sense of urgency” to cut costs and eliminate unprofitable flying.

Jet fuel prices have surged from an average of USD2.30 per gallon in the final quarter of 2025 to around USD4.80 currently, following the United States’ and Israel’s attack on Iran. Prices eased slightly after a two-week ceasefire was announced on April 8, pushing oil to below USD100 per barrel.

Delta said that the capacity reductions, amounting to roughly 3.5 percentage points from its original plan, come alongside a warning that elevated fuel prices could add more than USD2 billion to second-quarter costs. The airline expects low-teens revenue growth this June quarter, with an operating margin of 6% to 8% and a pre-tax profit of about USD1 billion.

“We woke up this morning with a very different set of fuel assumptions than we had when we went to bed,” Joe Esposito, Delta's chief commercial officer, told analysts. However, Delta and its global peers do not expect prices to fall materially, instead anticipating they will remain “higher for longer” than previously forecast.

Unlike many European carriers, Delta does not hedge fuel, nor do its US peers. However, it owns a refinery in Pennsylvania that helps offset rising costs. The facility is expected to generate a net profit of USD300 million in the second quarter, up from USD60 million in the first.

The airline has also introduced additional measures to manage costs, including higher checked baggage fees on new bookings, a move that could become permanent. “At this level of fuel, it is hard to call anything temporary,” Bastian admitted.

Delta reported a net loss of USD289 million for the first quarter of 2026.