In many ways, the next four years are likely to be a whole lot different under a second Donald Trump presidency. And Delta Airlines (DAL) is already starting to celebrate those differences, declaring the Trump administration—or at least its approach to regulation—to be a “…breath of fresh air.”
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Ed Bastian, Delta’s CEO, declared the last four years to be full of government “overreach.” While Delta does not specifically want the government to be out of the airline business, it does seem to have a preference for the direction it takes.
For instance, Delta is currently under investigation for the CrowdStrike (CRWD) outages earlier this summer that left passengers stranded. It is also laboring under a set of new rules that are very customer-friendly, like automatic cash refunds issued in the event an airline cancels a flight. However, Delta would prefer that the government focus on improving air traffic control.
First Class Cheeseburgers
In other news, Delta is teaming up with Shake Shack (SHAK) to bring cheeseburgers to its airline flights. A Caesar salad, chips, and a chocolate brownie will round out the food option. However, the fast food cheeseburger will only be available to those flying first class.
What coach passengers get is less clear. Also less clear is what kind of impact a clearly class-focused move like this will have on future ticket sales, though Delta is expecting sales growth in 2025.
Is Delta Stock a Buy or Sell?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Strong Buy consensus rating on DAL stock based on 17 Buys assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 81.21% rally in its share price over the past year, the average DAL price target of $72.46 per share implies 13.22% upside potential.
