US Stocks: Delta Air Lines lifts revenue outlook despite jet fuel hit, shares jump 4%

Delta Air Lines raised its first-quarter revenue forecast in light of robust travel demand, offsetting a hit from spiking jet fuel costs due to the Middle East war.The big US carrier confirmed its profit projection for the period, even as jet fuel prices almost doubled, according to Chief Executive Officer Ed Bastian.Bastian told an investor conference the carrier had experienced "a $400 million fuel spike just in the month of March" due to a roughly 40 percent surge in crude prices from the period just ahead of the February 28 start of the US-Israeli campaign against Iran.But Bastian said consumers have still been booking trips in significant numbers, resulting in eight of the company's 10 highest sales days in history during the quarter. Five of them came in March, with the war under way."Sales for us have been very, very strong all quarter long, most particularly starting off in the March spring season, which is typically the season when travel bookings really start to accumulate," he said.Bastian reported broad-based growth in Delta's domestic market. By contrast the company has seen "a very modest decline in Europe since the war started," he said. Shares of Delta jumped 4.8 percent in early trading.But Bastian said less than 20 percent of the company's transatlantic revenues is from point-of-sale Europe.