Delta’s Worst Performing Region This Summer Was… Europe?!?

Over the years, we’ve seen airlines massively expand their summer schedules to Europe, given the increasing trend of Americans taking at least one summer trip across the Atlantic. Along those lines, Delta executives have made some interesting comments this week, which reflect a new reality that US airlines are dealing with.

Delta had a disappointing summer across the Atlantic

On September 11, 2025, Delta President Glen Hauenstein spoke at a Morgan Stanley Event, and revealed that Europe service was the company’s “worst performing entity in the third quarter” (which almost completely overlaps with the calendar definition of summer). That would obviously come as a huge surprise to many people, so what’s driving this weakness? Well, a couple of things…

First of all, Hauenstein explained that “July and August have not been the peak months that they once were in terms of high-end leisure into Europe.” Indeed, family travel to Europe has increasingly shifted heavily to June, while a lot of non-family travel has increasingly shifted to September and October, to avoid the peak. The airline is seeing “a big sequential improvement” in performance across the Atlantic for October, for example.

In July and August, Europe is most expensive (in terms of accommodations) and also hottest, and that’s something that many people are trying to avoid. So I think many travelers are just wisening up.

Second of all, the weakness in Europe comes down to weakness in economy demand. While premium leisure demand remains strong, yields in economy have gone down a bit from their peak. So Hauenstein emphasized that weakness “was all in the main cabin,” and that “premium products across the board are continuing to perform,” and that “within every entity, premium is leading in terms of unit revenues.”

Delta claims that most of its profits are coming from premium travel right now, stating that “you have the high end producing returns, and you have the main cabin really essentially not producing returns that are acceptable.”

So Delta is trying to rationalize capacity in economy, but Hauenstein notes that “we don’t need main cabin to be positive to post positive returns,” and “that’s what we’re seeing now, main cabin is still negative.” The good news for Delta is that weakness in economy demand is partly being offset by improving corporate sales numbers, and Delta claims it had its “highest post-pandemic corporate sales number for any day and any week in this September.”

A longer European season is ultimately good for airlines

The weakening of July and August across the Atlantic is in some ways good for airlines. The airline industry is a tough business, especially given the lack of ability to massively shift capacity (in terms of aircraft, staffing, etc.) based on demand.

For so long, airlines essentially had to design fleet and staffing needs around those peak summer months. That was good in the sense that those months were profitable, but then it was tricky to figure out what to do with those planes in the late summer and early fall, when demand fell greatly.

Having Europe demand be more spread out across six months or so (April through October) is much better than having is just be so heavily focused on a couple of peak months. This is why we’re also increasingly seeing airlines extend their seasonal routes in Europe, to be much longer than in the past.

On this topic, I have to say, I always find the narrative of what constitutes a profitable route to be quite interesting. Delta is the most profitable airline in the United States (though no longer the most profitable in the world), and is incredibly well run. No one disputes that.

Delta had a net income of $4.7 billion in 2024. However, over the course of the year, the cost per available seat mile was 19.3 cents, while the passenger revenue per available seat mile was 17.65 cents. In the end, total revenue per available seat mile was 21.37 cents.

So yeah, Delta is losing a pretty penny (and actually has worse margins than United) if you were to simply compare passenger revenue per available seat mile to cost per available seat mile. But it’s everything else that Delta makes money on (especially its loyalty program), and that leads to the healthy profits.

It sure seems like it can be tough to figure out how to allocate those profits to particular flights. So it’s funny how during the same conference, Hauenstein stated how Europe was Delta’s “worst performing entity in the third quarter, although very profitable still.”

Airline math is just funny, eh? Delta doesn’t really generate many direct profits transporting customers, yet the carrier’s least profitable entity was still “very profitable.”

Bottom line

Despite the popularity of traveling to Europe in summer, Delta executives have reported that Europe was the carrier’s worst performing entity in the third quarter. This largely comes down to less Europe demand in July and August, and weaker economy demand.

The weaker economy demand isn’t surprising, and I’d argue that less of an emphasis on July and August is actually good for airlines, since it allows them to have a longer and more consistent schedule. We’re increasingly seeing American families travel to Europe in June, while those without kids in school travel in April, May, September, October, etc.

What do you make of Delta’s Europe weakness in summer?