Delta Airlines Earnings

I’ve spent much of the day reading about The Securities Act Of 1933, so it’s not surprising that stock market news caught my eye. One thing I should note: Nothing I mention in today’s post should be taken as investment advice or a recommendation to buy, sell, or in any other way transact a security. If you’re getting your investment advice from some guy on the internet, that’s a bad thing. Now, onto a brief discussion about Delta Airlines Earnings.

Delta Lost A Lot Of Money

Delta Airlines, which is usually the first major airline to release its earnings each quarter, held their investment conference call and announced that they had lost $2.6 billion pre-tax on almost an 80% decline in revenue versus the third quarter of 2019. The poor head of Investor Relations, Jill Greer, who, by now, was wondering why she hadn’t taken the blue pill, found some solace in the fact that revenue bottomed in the second quarter at a 90% decline, but there’s not much else positive to be said. The fourth quarter should be up again, but this airline isn’t even close to profitability, and they’re viewed as one of the more conservative ones. Cash burn is $18 million per day, on a base of $21 billion in liquidity (although the airline would declare bankruptcy long before reaching zero).

Even worse: The third quarter is usually one of the two most profitable of the year, the other being the second quarter. That means that, even if we got a vaccine tomorrow, it’s still another six months or so before the airline is throwing off a ton of cash.

On the plus side, the Biscoff cookies are pre-wrapped.

Curious About Airline Elite Status?
[GUIDE] AIRLINE ELITE STATUS DURING CORONAVIRUS

Other Depressing News

Here are a few other tidbits that didn’t quite merit a full paragraph:

For the fourth month this year, Boeing received no new orders.
Royal Caribbean announced a plan to raise $1 billion from the capital markets through stock and convertible debt. The stock fell 13% on the shareholder dilution.
USA Today pointed out some amazing deals, including a previous round-trip fare to Tokyo for $173.
Sadly, airline furloughs will only continue to increase.
A tourist got a solo visit to Machu Picchu. I’m not sure whether he was lucky or not.
Lonely Planet reissued its list of the Top 10 ultimate places to travel. Now they’re just rubbing it in.