Delta Airlines has announced its $45.6bn revenue in profit for the year ended 2022.

The President, Delta Air Lines, Glen Hauenstein, revealed this in a statement on the airline’s financial report for the year ended 2022.

Hauenstein stated, “Industry-leading operations and the best-in-class service our people provided drove strong customer satisfaction scores and increasing brand preference in 2022.

“For the year, we delivered $45.6bn in adjusted revenue, a $19bn increase over the prior year, with record unit revenue performance expected to sustain a revenue premium to the industry of more than 110 per cent.

“Momentum continues in 2023 with strong demand trends, and we expect March quarter adjusted revenue to be 14 to 17 per cent higher than 2019 on capacity that is 1 percent lower.”

The airline said strong demand through the quarter drove domestic total passenger revenue seven per cent higher versus December quarter 2019, with International passenger revenue up five per cent.

Also in the December quarter, 80 per cent recovered to 2019 levels. Recent corporate survey results indicate that 96 per cent of companies expect their travel will stay the same or increase sequentially in the March quarter.

The statement said, “Other financial results showed operating income of $3.6bn with an operating margin of 7.8 per cent. Pre-tax income of $2.7bn with a pre-tax margin of 5.9 per cent. Earnings per share of $3.20. Operating cash flow of $6.2bn. Free cash flow of $244m. $9.4bn in liquidity and adjusted net debt of $22.3bn at year end.”

Delta’s Chief Financial Officer, Dan Janki, also added that, “We made significant progress restoring our financial foundation in 2022 with positive free cash flow generation and three quarters of double-digit margins. This enabled us to pay down over $4.5bn of gross debt during the year, strengthening our balance sheet.

“We expect to deliver free cash flow of more than $2bn in 2023 and further reduce debt on our path to reach investment grade metrics in 2024.”

The statement added that Delta employees earned $563m in profit sharing and $61m in shared rewards for the year, recognising the outstanding performance of Delta’s 90,000 employees.

Delta’s Chief Executive Officer, Ed Bastian, lauding their efforts, said, “Delta people rose to the challenges of 2022, delivering industry-leading operational reliability and financial performance, and I’m looking forward to recognising their achievements with over $500m in profit sharing payments next month.”

Bastian gave an outlook into 2023, and projections for 2024.

“We expect to grow 2023 revenue by 15 to 20 per cent and improve unit costs year-over-year, supporting a full-year outlook for earnings of $5 to $6 per share and keeping us on track to achieve more than $7 of earnings per share in 2024.”