09:24 AM EDT, 10/10/2024 (MT Newswires) -- Delta Air Lines ( DAL ) issued a weak fourth-quarter earnings outlook amid expectations for subdued travel demand around the US Presidential elections in November, as the air carrier's bottom line fell short of market estimates in the prior three-month period while revenue beat Wall Street forecasts.

The airline anticipates adjusted earnings to range between $1.60 and $1.85 per share for the ongoing quarter, it said Thursday. The midpoint of the guidance range is below the current consensus on Capital IQ for $1.76. Revenue is forecast to grow by 2% to 4%. The stock was down about 1% in premarket activity.

"We anticipate a one point impact to total unit revenue from reduced travel demand around the election," President Glen Hauenstein said in a statement. Bookings for the December quarter are "strong," while capacity growth is seen at 3% to 4%, according to Hauenstein.

"We expect our December quarter pre-tax profit to grow 30% over last year to $1.4 billion, which would mark one of the most profitable fourth quarters in our history," Chief Executive Ed Bastian said.

For the quarter ended Sept. 30, Delta's adjusted EPS dropped to $1.50 from $2.03 the year before, missing the Street's view for $1.53. Operating revenue ticked up 1% to $15.68 billion, topping analysts' $15.29 billion estimate. Total passenger revenue remained nearly flat year over year at $13.11 billion, while cargo jumped 27%.

The global tech outage in July caused by the update cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike (CRWD) deployed for its Falcon sensors on Microsoft (MSFT) Windows systems had a direct revenue impact of about $380 million in the quarter, Delta said. The incident, which forced the carrier to cancel flights and refund customers, dragged down earnings by $0.45 a share.

Total revenue per available seat mile declined 3.6% on an adjusted basis, impacted by the global tech outage. Domestic unit revenue decreased 3%, while the Atlantic, Latin America and the Pacific fell 2%, 6% and 16%, respectively.

"Through the September quarter, unit revenue growth improved sequentially in all geographic entities, reflecting an improved equilibrium between demand and supply as industry growth moderated," according to Hauenstein.

Operating expenses amounted to $14.28 billion, up from $13.5 billion in the prior-year quarter. Non-fuel cost per available seat mile inclined 5.7% on a yearly basis.

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