Delta Air Lines released fourth quarter and full year financial results for 2025 Tuesday morning revealing lower fuel costs for both reporting periods despite using more fuel over the entire year than in 2024.
For the fourth quarter of 2025, Delta Air Lines reported spending $2.38 billion on fuel costs, a 1% drop from the same period in the prior year when the airline spent just over $2.4 billion.
Over the course of the full year, though, fuel costs saw a more significant drop. Through all four quarters of 2025, Delta spent $9.819 billion total on fuel and related costs. That's a 7% drop - $747 million less - than the full year in 2024 when fuel costs topped $10.5 billion.
Overall fuel use in the fourth quarter 2025 was 1.043 billion gallons for the air carrier, a 2% drop year to year. But the airline did use more fuel than the prior year over all four quarters, totaling 4.269 billion gallons consumed - a 4% increase from full year 2024 figures.
On average, both fourth quarter and full year 2025 figures showed lower costs per gallon for fuel. In the fourth quarter, Delta reported an average cost of $2.28/gal for fuel, a 3% and 8ct/gal decline from the same quarter in 2024. The quarterly figure includes an 11ct/gal benefit from the Delta-owned Trainer, Pa., refinery. Over the course of the full 2025 reporting year, Delta saw a 10% decrease in fuel costs at $2.30/gal - 27cts/gal less than the prior year.
Refinery benefits helped reduce full-year fuel costs by 4cts/gal.
Looking at the measure of the cost of fuel per available seat mile, or fuel CASM, there were similar cost decreases year to year. In the fourth quarter, the air line reported a fuel CASM of 3.26cts/ASM, 2.39% less than the same quarter a year prior. For the full 2025 year, Delta reported a fuel CASM of 3.29cts/gal, a 10.11% decrease from the full year 2024 fuel CASM of 3.66cts/gal.
Additionally, the airline reported increased sustainable fuel use during the 2025 financial year thanks to collaboration with the Minnesota SAF Hub, Shell Aviation, Montana Renewables and the Port of Portland.
Looking ahead, Delta Chief Executive Officer Ed Bastian said, "2026 is off to a strong start with top-line growth accelerating on consumer and corporate demand. For the full year, we [Delta Air Lines] expect to deliver margin expansion and earnings growth of 20% year-over-year."
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-Reporting by Cory Wilchek, cwilchek@opisnet.com; Editing by Michael Kelly, mkelly@opisnet.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 13, 2026 11:56 ET (16:56 GMT)
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