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Delta premium travel set to overtake coach cabin sales next year
A view from the Delta Sky Club at Los Angeles International Airport, Sept. 2, 2022.
AaronP | Bauer-Griffin | GC Images | Getty Images
Delta Air Lines customers are getting used to first class.
Revenue from the pricier, roomier seats toward the front of the plane could eclipse sales from standard coach seats for at least a quarter or two next year, Delta executives said Thursday.
In the last quarter, Delta said ticket revenue from its premium cabin rose 9% from last year to nearly $5.8 billion, while main-cabin ticket revenue fell 4% from a year earlier to just over $6 billion.
CEO Ed Bastian said he’s seen no sign of premium-travel demand slowing down, a trend that helped drive the carrier’s upbeat forecast, released Thursday, for the rest of 2025 and next year.
Airlines from Delta to Frontier have been working to court travelers willing to pay more for seats on board.
During an investor day last year, Delta said that just 43% of its 2024 revenue was coming from main cabin tickets, down from a 60% share from in 2010. Meanwhile, Delta said that close to 60% of revenue last year was generated by premium seats and its lucrative loyalty program.
Delta, the most profitable U.S. airline, has benefitted from its customers shelling out more for premium seats. Carriers have raced to add more of those seats to their fleets, some of them so elaborate — with lie-flat beds, ottomans and big entertainment screens — that they have delayed deliveries of new planes as regulators evaluate their design.
