“As we move into 2025, we expect strong demand for travel to continue, with consumers increasingly seeking the premium products and experiences that Delta provides,” CEO Ed Bastian said in a prepared statement on Friday.
The company earned $843 million, or $1.29 per share. Per share earnings removing one-time expenses were $1.85, easily beating Wall Street projections of $1.76, according to industry analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research.
A year earlier, Delta earned $2.04 billion, or $3.16 per share.
Delta hit the top end of its own forecast for the three months ended Dec. 3, having said that it would earn between $1.60 and $1.85 per share.
Revenue rose to $15.56 billion, from $14.22 billion, last year, also topping Wall Street estimates of $14.99 billion.
Total revenue per available seat mile climbed to $21.60 from $20.78 a year ago.
Delta also benefited from a drop in fuel costs during the quarter. Fuel expense fell to $2.41 billion from $2.94 billion. The average fuel price per gallon declined to $2.36 from $3.01.
Shares of Delta jumped more than 6% before the opening bell on Friday after saying that it now anticipates full-year earnings will be more than $7.35 per share, and between 70 cents and $1 in the first quarter.
Analysts polled by FactSet had been expecting full-year earnings of $6.11 per share and first-quarter earnings of 77 cents per share.
Delta's strong quarter also pushed the shares of other airlines higher in premarket trading, with American Airlines up more than 4%, JetBlue rising about 2% and United Airlines climbing more than 5%.
Among U.S. carriers, Delta scored the highest for on-time arrivals last year, aviation-data provider Cirium reported last week. That was despite a computer outage that caused thousands of flight cancellations in July.
Delta, based in Atlanta, achieved an on-time rate of more than 83%, good enough to rank third worldwide behind Aeromexico and Saudia, respectively. The next-best U.S. carriers were United Airlines, at nearly 81%, and Alaska Airlines, at just over 79%, Cirium said.