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Alongside strong customer demand for the fourth quarter of 2025 and a positive outlook for the first half of 2026, Delta Air Lines reported in regulatory filings on Dec. 3 that it lost $200 million in pre-tax profits due to the longest government shutdown in U.S. history.
The government shutdown began at midnight on Sept. 30 and lasted 43 days—a six-week span in which air traffic controllers worked without pay. Lengthy flight delays became common as the shutdown dragged on, and on Nov. 6, Federal Aviation Administration Administrator Bryan Bedford and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced a 10 percent reduction in domestic flights at 40 of the country’s busiest airports.
A 4 percent reduction in flights went into effect on Nov. 7, followed by staggered increases in flight reductions over the following seven days. Originally numbering in the hundreds, daily U.S. flight cancellations peaked at more than 2,700 by Nov. 9.
The extended government shutdown ended on Nov. 12, and flight reduction requirements were lifted on Nov. 16.
Delta’s operations were heavily impacted during the shutdown. On Nov. 10, Delta CEO Ed Bastian reported 495 cancellations. On Nov. 9, the airline canceled 470 flights, and an additional 380 had been slashed the previous day.
Bastian said Delta ended up canceling more than 2,000 flights, adversely affecting fourth-quarter earnings by about $0.25 a share, the airline noted in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Nevertheless, for the quarter ended Sept. 30, Delta reported record quarterly revenues of $15.2 billion, a year-over-year increase of 4.1 percent, and earnings of $1.71 per share.
In a fireside chat on Dec. 3 at the two-day Morgan Stanley Global Consumer & Retail Conference in New York City, the airline’s top executive said 2025 has been a volatile year on numerous fronts, including the impacts of global tariff policies enacted by President Donald Trump, waning business confidence, and the government-mandated shutdown.
Despite the challenges, Delta should end the calendar year with roughly $5 billion in profits, Bastian said—though about $200 million less than previously expected due to the widespread flight cancellations.
“We saw from Friday, Nov. 7, right through for about 10 days, somewhere between a 5 to 10 percent immediate reduction in bookings,” Bastian said. “Business (travel) was a big part of that because people were trying to get their last business trip in prior to Thanksgiving.”
During that period, refunds also spiked, which was not in the airline’s business forecast, Bastian said.
“That [$0.25] impact on the quarter we will do our very best to make up,” he said. “Thanksgiving (travel) was strong, we just had Cyber Monday, Travel Tuesday, and this past Sunday (Nov. 30), which is always the busiest day of the year for us for travel, once again was—we set an all-time record on Sunday.”
Bastian noted Delta shouldn’t suffer any lingering financial effects from the November flight cancellations, and Christmas and New Year’s bookings remain strong.
“We are performing completely within expectations,” he said. “On a go-forward basis, the first half of the quarter was doing great; we had this little lull, but I think we are through it.”
