It’s about to get a little more expensive to fly the friendly skies. As jet fuel prices rise, Delta Air Lines has had to cut its profit outlook. In a statement on Wednesday, it announced that as fuel prices are up about 50 percent over the past 12 months, the company’s second-quarter earnings had to be trimmed from $2 a share to no more than $1.75 a share.
Delta isn’t the only airline to make this move, either. The International Air Transport Association, which represents most of the world’s airlines, cut its profit outlook for airlines this year due to higher costs, and back in April, American Airlines trimmed its profit forecast due to rising fuel costs.
Fuel cost is the second largest expense for most airplanes, right behind employee salaries, which makes grappling with a jump in fuel prices especially challenging. Since, as grandma used to say, stuff like this tends to roll downhill, there’s little doubt that those rising fuel prices will get passed along to consumers.
Bloomberg has a full analysis, but the TL;DR is simple: air travel is probably going to become an even bigger financial burden.
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