Wednesday, April 8, 2026
Delta Air Lines Erases All 'Epic Fury' Losses As In-House Refinery Cushions Fuel Shock
Delta Air Lines soared in premarket trading on a combination of the U.S.-Iran ceasefire and stronger-than-expected first-quarter results, with the carrier's in-house refinery helping to lower the average jet fuel price for its fleet in the first quarter, making it appear to be one of the better-positioned carriers than most peers to withstand an energy shock.
Even without a ceasefire in the Middle East, Delta's first-quarter results only exemplified its strategic advantage over peers: its Trainer refinery in Pennsylvania, operated through its wholly owned subsidiary Monroe Energy, reduced the airline's fuel price by more than 2% during the quarter and is expected to provide a $300 million benefit in the second quarter.
"Delta is best positioned to navigate this environment, with a leading brand, strong financial foundation, and the benefit of our refinery," Delta CEO Ed Bastian wrote in the earnings release.
Bastian continued, "We delivered earnings that were more than 40% higher than last year, even with a significant increase in fuel costs and operational disruptions across the industry."
The airline expects second-quarter jet fuel expenses to top $2 billion at the forward curve.
Here's a snapshot of first-quarter earnings (courtesy of Bloomberg):
Adjusted EPS 64c vs. 45c y/y, estimate 57c (Bloomberg Consensus)
- Loss per share 44c vs. EPS 37c y/y
Adjusted revenue $14.20 billion, +9.4% y/y, estimate $14.08 billion
Passenger revenue $12.30 billion, +7.2% y/y, estimate $12.28 billion
Cargo revenue $226 million, +8.7% y/y, estimate $213.7 million
Passenger load factor 81.6% vs. 81.4% y/y, estimate 82.4%
Available seat miles 69.16 billion, +1.1% y/y, estimate 69.15 billion
Revenue passenger miles 56.47 billion, +1.4% y/y, estimate 56.96 billion
Adjusted net income $423 million, +45% y/y, estimate $372 million
Yield per passenger mile 21.78c, +5.6% y/y
"Demand remains strong, and we are taking actions to protect our margins and cash flow. This includes meaningfully reducing capacity growth, with a downward bias until the fuel environment improves, and moving quickly to recapture higher fuel costs. Delta is best positioned to navigate this environment," the CEO said.
Earnings outlook for the second quarter (courtesy of Bloomberg):
Sees adjusted EPS of $1 to $1.50, estimate $1.45
Sees adjusted total revenue up low teens y/y
Sees adjusted operating margin of 6% to 8%
Shares of Delta jumped nearly 13% in premarket trading. Delta shares tumbled into a bear market last month during the U.S.-Iran conflict but have since rebounded from mid-March.
Related:
Delta is the only U.S. airline that operates a major refinery, and it appears Wall Street is rewarding the carrier for it.
Iran Gives Approved Hormuz Shippers "Few Seconds" To Submit Payment In Bitcoin
Iran plans to require shipping companies to pay transit tolls in Bitcoin for vessels passing through the Strait of Hormuz, according to a Financial Times report.
As Micah Zimmerman reports for BitcoinMagazine.com, this links bitcoin to one of the world’s most critical energy corridors and current events.
The policy would apply to oil tankers seeking passage during a two-week ceasefire between Iran and the United States, announced after a shift in posture from Donald Trump. The arrangement aims to reopen a route that handles a large share of global oil flows while allowing Tehran to maintain control over access.
According to statements attributed to Iranian officials, shipping firms would receive a payment request prior to transit. Once approved, vessels would be given a short window to complete the transaction in bitcoin. The structure reflects an attempt to bypass traditional financial rails that remain constrained by sanctions, while preserving a mechanism for enforcement over passage.
As The FT details, Hamid Hosseini, a spokesperson for Iran’s Oil, Gas and Petrochemical Products Exporters’ Union, told the FT on Wednesday that Iran wanted to collect tolling fees from any tanker passing and to assess each ship.
“Iran needs to monitor what goes in and out of the strait to ensure these two weeks aren’t used for transferring weapons,” said Hosseini, whose industry association works closely with the state.
“Everything can pass through, but the procedure will take time for each vessel, and Iran is not in a rush,” he added.
Decisions on the conditions for passing the strait are taken by Iran’s Supreme National Security Council. Hosseini’s remarks suggest Iran will require any tankers to use the northerly route close to its coastline, raising questions over whether western or Gulf state-linked vessels will be willing to risk transit.
Hosseini said that each tanker must email authorities about its cargo, after which Iran will inform them of the toll to be paid in digital currencies.
He said that the tariff is $1 per barrel of oil, adding that empty tankers can pass freely.
“Once the email arrives and Iran completes its assessment, vessels are given a few seconds to pay in bitcoin, ensuring they can’t be traced or confiscated due to sanctions,” Hosseini added.
Bitcoin, Iran, and the Strait of Hormuz
The move places bitcoin at the center of a geopolitical flashpoint. Iran has faced restrictions on dollar-based settlement systems for years, limiting its ability to collect fees or process payments tied to maritime trade. By shifting to bitcoin, authorities seek a channel that operates outside conventional banking networks and offers resistance to seizure.
Shipping companies face a different calculation. Compliance may secure safe passage through a narrow waterway that links the Persian Gulf to global markets, but it introduces exposure to digital asset volatility, operational risk, and legal uncertainty tied to sanctions regimes.
Markets have begun to react. Bitcoin rose above $72,500 following the ceasefire announcement, reversing earlier weakness tied to fears of escalation.
Currently bitcoin is trading near $73,000. The price move reflects a shift in risk sentiment as traders reassess the likelihood of supply disruptions and broader conflict.
The proposed toll system underscores how digital assets can intersect with state policy under pressure.
For Iran, bitcoin offers a tool to collect revenue and assert control without reliance on intermediaries.
For global shipping, it signals a potential change in how access to key infrastructure could be priced and enforced.
The ceasefire remains limited in scope and duration. Any breakdown in negotiations could halt transit or alter the payment framework, leaving companies exposed to sudden shifts in policy.
For now, the introduction of bitcoin as a toll mechanism marks a test case for cryptocurrency use in sovereign-controlled trade routes, with implications that extend beyond the region.
Unpalatable
Allowing Iran to continue to control the crucial waterway is likely to be highly unpalatable to Gulf states including Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE.
It also raises questions for Opec+, the oil producers’ group, with analysts warning that handing Iran control of Hormuz could fundamentally alter the balance of power within the organisation by giving Tehran a potential veto over rival members’ exports.
Ali Shihabi, a commentator close to the Saudi royal court, said the kingdom would demand “unimpeded” access to global markets.
“Allowing Iran any form of control over the strait would be a red line,” Shihabi said. “The priority has to be unimpeded access through the strait.”
Several traders said they thought the situation in the coming days would resemble the system that has developed over the past fortnight, in which a handful of ships that have been approved by Iran are allowed to pass on a specific route.
Giluiani on RICO case he had prepared for ‘point man’ Joe Biden
Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani told “Pod Force One” in an episode released Wednesday that he had drafted a racketeering case against Joe Biden that alleged the former vice president served as “point man” in foreign policy posts that often did nothing for the US — but got his own family “rich.”
“The laptop made it about as easy to prosecute a conspiracy, RICO, whatever you want, a case … that I’d ever seen,” Giuliani told The Post’s Miranda Devine on the podcast, referring to emails on Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop, FBI informant files and other information showing the future 46th president “took massive bribes.”
Biden has repeatedly denied any involvement in his son Hunter or brother James’ business ventures before, during and after his presidential term, referring to the allegations as “a bunch of lies.”
Giuliani, the former US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, then laid out several instances in which Biden was “the point man for Obama” in countries — including in Iraq and Ukraine — where his family sought business deals while he was vice president.
“He had a very simple mission in Iraq. His mission was to negotiate a status of forces agreement with the Iraq government that we basically controlled,” Giuliani recalled.
“That means, if we leave soldiers behind in a volatile situation, they get prosecuted by us, not by a government that might be partially terrorist.”
“We can’t leave our soldiers in that situation,” he said.
“But, of course, as his fellow Secretary of Defense [Robert Gates] said, Biden never did anything in foreign policy.“
“He comes back with no status of forces agreement, which means we have to leave Iraq completely,” Giuliani added. “America gets nothing … but his brother gets a 25% piece of a billion-dollar housing deal and, as usual, knows nothing about housing.”
The $1.5 billion contract would have seen 100,000 low-cost homes built in Iraq as part of James Biden‘s 2010 joint venture, known as HillStone International — but construction was never started.
At the time, Joe Biden had “regular engagement with Iraq” through his work for the Obama administration.
The Iraqi home-building venture ended in 2012, and it’s unclear what James Biden earned over the roughly two-year tenue, The Wall Street Journal first reported.
Giuliani also called out Biden on the podcast for blundering in having mentioned his efforts to get Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin fired while his son Hunter was serving on the board of the gas company Burisma that was under state investigation.
Biden oversaw Ukraine as part of his foreign policy portfolio at the time as well.
“He got appointed to run Ukraine, particularly the flow of money to Ukraine. And, he’s supposed to help them become honest,” Giuliani said. “He’s supposed to help them deal with their corruption, and he’s supposed to help them fight Russia.”
But Biden “threatened [then-Ukrainian President Petro] Poroshenko with withholding a billion dollars of US aid unless you fire Viktor Shokin, the prosecutor general, who was investigating Burisma,” Giuliani added.
Giuliani had received information starting in late 2018 about the pressure campaign to oust Shokin, he said.
Subsequent FBI files released by congressional Republicans show that an informant said Joe and Hunter Biden each took $5 million bribes from Burisma’s owner in exchange for providing protection from Shokin’s corruption investigation — allegations the Bidens have denied.
Giuliani said that in addition to Iraq and Ukraine, the other two aspects of the RICO case would have involved Russia — including a “very odd” $3.5 million wire transfer from a Russian billionaire to Hunter Biden — and more than $5 million from a joint venture with a Chinese energy conglomerate, CEFC.
“He made it to the top and he got lucky. Biden may have taken more bribes than any American president, just by force of circumstances,” the former New York City mayor said.
Biden had in the past laughed off the bribery and corruption accusations, saying in response to a question from The Post in June 2023, “Where’s the money?”
Reps for Biden did not respond to a request for comment.
Iran threatens to ‘destroy’ ships that pass through Strait of Hormuz — despite cease-fire pact
Iran’s battered navy has reportedly warned foreign ships on Wednesday that they will be “destroyed” if they attempt to cross the Strait of Hormuz without permission from Tehran.
“You must receive permission from Iranian Sepah navy for passing through the strait. If any vessel tries to transit without permission, will be destroyed,” an Iranian official was heard saying in audio shared with the Wall Street Journal by a crew member.
The threat comes despite President Trump announcing late Tuesday that Iran agreed to the “COMPLETE, IMMEDIATE, and SAFE OPENING of the Strait of Hormuz,” through which over a fifth of the world’s seaborne oil flows annually.
The opening of the strait was a key condition of the Iran war cease-fire agreement. Fuel prices have surged worldwide in the wake of Iran’s closure of the crucial chokepoint.
Tehran had used missiles and drones to wreak havoc on the strait in retaliation against the joint US-Israeli strikes on its country to exact a toll on the global economy.
The cease-fire Trump unveiled Tuesday lasts for two weeks as the two sides negotiate a longer-term solution to end the war that began on Feb. 28.
A senior Iranian official involved in the talks said the strait could be reopened in a “limited” way under Iran’s control on Thursday or Friday — and that “coordinating with Iranian military will be mandatory for all ships.”
“If an understanding on a framework for talks is reached, the strait could be opened, limited, under Iran’s control,” the official told Reuters. “Coordinating with Iranian military will be mandatory for all ships.
“Still, the cease-fire is fragile; however, we prefer lasting peace but Iran has no fear to return to war if the US wants to go the same way,” the official warned.
In a press conference Wednesday, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth insisted the strait was open and “commerce will flow.”
“What has been agreed to, what’s been stated, is the strait is open. Our military is watching, sure, their military is watching, but commerce will flow,” he told reporters.
He added that the military would be “hanging around” in the Middle East to ensure Iran complies with the cease-fire.
But in an apparent sign of that fragility, Iran was accused of launching a wave of drones on neighboring Kuwait, where American air bases have been used to direct strikes on the Iranian regime.
Iran’s drones targeted vital oil facilities, power stations, and water desalination plants, causing major infrastructure damage, according to Kuwait’s army.
Hegseth downplayed the concern over the strikes, saying that it can take time for “cease-fires to take hold.”
“Iran would be wise to find a way to get the carrier pigeon to their troops out in remote locations to know not to shoot, not to shoot any longer one-way attacks or missiles — because it takes time sometimes for cease-fires to take hold,” he told reporters, adding that “we’re watching it.”
World leaders from across Europe and the Middle East, meanwhile, praised Trump’s deal, and urged Iran to accept a lasting peace plan.
“I welcome the two-week ceasefire agreed upon by the USA and Iran overnight,” German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said in a statement on social media, thanking Pakistan for assisting with the negotiations.
“The goal now must be to negotiate a permanent end to the war. We are in close contact with our partners regarding this matter,” Merz added.
Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer also said the deal would “bring a moment of relief to the region and the world” as he called for a “lasting agreement” to help “reopen the Strait of Hormuz.”