Delta's Profit Will Likely Be Clipped By Special Charges Despite Solid Operating Performance

In our view, though these special charges will clip Delta's third quarter profit, the carrier's long term profit outlook is bright driven by its ongoing solid operating performance. In the third quarter, excluding the impact from these special charges, Delta's operating margin is expected to rise to 15-16% on gains from capacity expansion and cost cutbacks, up from 13% in the same period last year. We figure because of variability in special charges, the exclusion of these charges is helpful to ...