Wednesday, April 8, 2026
Fuel Cost Q1 2025
$2.47 per gal
Fuel Cost Q4 2025
$2.28 per gal
Fuel Cost Q1 2026
$2.78 per gal

Buckle up, everybody! Earnings season takes flight today with Delta Air Lines, which filed its Q1 2026 earnings report this morning — and as always, Calcbench is collecting and collating the data so it’s ready for your analysis.


We can start with the headline numbers. Delta ($DAL) reported Q1 revenue of $15.8 billion (up 12.9 percent from the year-ago period) and operating profit of $501 million (a decline of 11.9 percent). Delta also swung to a net loss of $289 million thanks to several special items.


The most interesting items in today’s report, however, are the numbers Delta reported for fuel costs. Delta spent an average of $2.78 per gallon, up 12.5 percent from the $2.47 per gallon Delta reported one year ago. The company also reported spending a total of $2.74 billion in fuel for the quarter, up 13.8 percent from $2.41 billion one year ago. 


Delta is the first U.S. airline to report earnings every quarter (it’s one of the first to report earnings across all industries, actually), so its numbers provide a valuable early window into how the war in Iran is affecting corporate earnings. Those effects are most immediately visible in the amount of money Delta and other airlines are spending on jet fuel.


For example, Figure 1, below, shows the average price per gallon for jet fuel among each of the six major U.S. airlines since the start of 2024. Notice that huge upward spike for Delta in Q1 2026.


The obvious question is to what extent the other five major airlines will report similar spikes in fuel costs. We should know by the end of the month. 

Other Metrics Too

The per gallon cost of fuel is only one interesting metric that airlines report. Another is total amount spent on fuel per quarter. We had a post on that subject last month, charting fuel costs as a percentage of revenue over the last several years. 


Airlines also report total revenue per available seat mile (TRASM), cost per available seat mile (CASM), and load factor (the percentage of seats actually occupied across all fights for the period). Those numbers can provide insight into passengers’ demand for air travel, as well as how much airlines can pass along their higher costs to customers.


The good news for Calcbench subscribers is that you can quickly obtain all these non-GAAP disclosures by downloading our airlines template from DropBox. That template tracks all the major airlines and disclosures automatically, so the information is at your fingertips within minutes of the airline filing its latest earnings report. 


(Disclosure of our own: The template won’t work automatically unless you (a) are a Calcbench premium subscriber; and (b) have our Excel Add-In already installed. If you need help with either of those things, email us at us@calcbench.com any time.) 


Analysts can also use our Company-in-Detail page or Multi-Company page to look up information from specific airlines to see what disclosures they’ve made in recent periods and what stories arise from those numbers. 


Anyway, Delta has now launched Q1 earnings season. We’ll have more posts in the future as more earnings reports arrive.

FREE Calcbench Premium
Two Week Trial

Research financial & accounting data like never before. Get features designed for better insights. Try our enhanced Excel Add-in. Sign up now to try the Premium Suite.