Delta Air tops profit estimate, may cut orders

Bengaluru

DELTA Air Lines Inc reported a better-than-expected quarterly profit on Wednesday and said it may consider reducing its orders for wide-body aircraft as the industry struggles with excess capacity.

The No 2 US airline by passenger traffic had US$17.64 billion worth of pending orders for wide-body aircraft with France's Airbus Group SE at current list prices, according to the planemaker's order book. "We continue to see excess capacity in wide-bodies as we look to the future for the industry as a whole," Delta chief executive Edward Bastian said on a conference call with analysts. "We're in discussion with our OEM partners on what that means. And you could anticipate some reductions . . . broadly over the next several years." The carrier had no pending orders for wide-body jets with Boeing Co, the recent order book of the world's biggest planemaker showed.