Delta Air Lines, Inc. (DAL) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

They're dumb screens.

They're dumb screens. They'll tell you they're dumb.

Exactly.

My understanding is that's not going to be the case as we go forward.

Exactly right. And so the other part of our in-flight entertainment opportunity here is to turn those screens into smart screens. And Delta Sync on demand is going to be the avenue. So at Delta, we've long believed in the value of having seatback entertainment as well as your personal electronic devices with you. And by the way, the free WiFi extends to however many personal devices that you carry with you. Some crazy people carry 4 or 5 of them, you'll be able to connect them all on Delta when you put.

4 or 5?

Yes. I don't know what they're doing there. But I heard of one person carrying 6 as we've been piloting it, it's pretty funny. But the Delta Sync on demand is changing out the seatback screens and putting smart screens, which are also starting this year rolling out. And so you'll be able to have a curated experience back and forth in addition to the free WiFi. Delta has over 150,000 seatback screens. We have more than twice any airline in the world has on our fleets. And we continue to invest more and more into that entertainment channel. So just think, Michael, when you -- on next board, you sit down, you're welcomed by that smart screen. Michael, welcome. Glad to see that you're coming to Atlanta to see Ed and...

[indiscernible] you're telling me if I could have another dream [indiscernible]

And these are 3 restaurant suggestions we have for you that are cool spots that we're holding opportunity for you if you want to engage. How cool would that be? So when you think about personalization and travel and connectivity and a relationship that you have with a brand, that's the next frontier of travel.

Well, Ed, it's so interesting. And obviously, we're here at the Consumer Electronics Show. And for many years, as you know, we've had a belief that this is a place that wasn't just around technology. It was a place that others could live, which is the genesis of the C space, where we're enjoying this conversation today was to bring brands and the marketing side of the industry really to experience and understand the technology. And we did it originally. Our original vision for this was if technology is going to be how people are transacting and living their life more and more, and we thought of it from a transactional perspective, but obviously, the in-flight experience, what you're doing, and I applaud you for this as taking what is a transactional experience in making it a more strategic experience and a relationship, which is so often we hear people saying, "Gee, I don't want to just have that transactional relationship. I want to have that strategic that this is that and have personalization. You've done loyalty better than anybody, in my opinion, the Delta loyalty programs, and I've utilized them a lot, I'm happy to say, it's effortless and it's one of the easiest experiences and where loyalty matters. But this is going to ensure it even further.

Let's not take it towards another level, yes. And when you think about loyalty, what's the core -- what sits behind loyalty is trust, right? And when you're in our industry, what we do is hard. -- and who you trust with your travel experiences matter. And the reason we can even make the announcement, the reason we could even afford the $1 billion investment is because of our confidence in the people of Delta Air Lines because it's the people of Delta Air Lines that make all of this possible and the trust they have in the service. And I'm pleased that earlier this week, Cirium, which is the global consultancy that manages and evaluates reliability, on-time performance of all airlines around the world announced yet again, Delta was the #1 on-time airline throughout North America last year, a hard year, #1, and the most reliable airline across all of North America for all the reasons. So you can create free WiFi. You can create gizmos and gadgets and shiny objects over here. But if you don't place them on a foundation of reliability of performance and trust, which is where that loyalty sits in. That's what's going to make the WiFi fly.

Well, Ed, the last time I had the privilege of doing a keynote here at CES was in 2020 as when you did yours. And I interviewed in that section Alan Jope, the CEO of Unilever and Marc Benioff, the CEO of Salesforce. And the topic we talked about in 2020 was purpose and purpose-driven marketing. And I'd love your view on that. And obviously, I know it's core to Delta because we've had the experience of working together, and I know how important purpose is to you, and what you're saying here is not just about a technological gizmo or in advance. It's really about a relationship.

It's about relationship. What we've been through these last few years brings a human emotional attachment to connectivity. Why are people walking around with big smile, right? I remember 3 years ago, it was fun. It was crazy, but it was busy, right? There wasn't a lot of smiles. People are having to get through different -- people are just enjoying being here and the delight of being back together. And that's again what we create. We create connectivity, we create emotional attachment. And for us to actually take that to the sky now. And whether you're trips an hour or your trips 14 hours, you're going to stay connected with your loved ones with high-quality streaming access for whatever they're enjoying and we're giving you value. And that's the purpose that we bring to this world is the value we create through connection.

And the experience, and that's important, obviously. Ed, we're here at a technology show. I would be remiss if I didn't say, we've just kind of all experienced what happens when people don't make investment in technology and don't understand the importance of that. Being here at the center of technology and the technological advances, what -- if you had to guesstimate when you're back here in 2025, push it forward a little, and we're talking about the technology and advances, what do you see on the horizon?

Well, what I see is that we will now take this outside of just a U.S. context into a much more global context because our future is to connect the world, not just to connect North America or the U.S. And when we think about our partnerships that we have in Europe and South America, in Asia, I mean, we're still not back yet as a world. China is not even open really yet. And so everything we're doing in terms of leading the world out of this mess that we've been in is going to now be on a global stage. And Delta will be at the forefront of that. And that's what we're going to talk about. You can sign me up now. I'll sign up to that keynote 2 years ahead of time.

Well, Ed, you can count on it. Let me kind of take us back a moment. The brand side of Delta, the marketing side of Delta, it's interesting. I did a panel in October for Forbes on the question, which I think our audience would be interested in. And the question I was asked was what does the CEO, generically, what does the CEO not know about the role of the CMO. So I'm putting you on the spot here a little because we didn't talk about that question at all. So you're all hearing this unscripted guys. I hope you appreciate it. But...

I have an awesome CMO, and there's a lot, I don't know about Time Mapes and our marketing team and our communications team, by the way, who brought this whole vision to life over time. And thank you for that partnership with -- partnerships with great companies like Starbucks, where we have the activation and the loyalty you talked about. I'll tell you a quick story about Starbucks. Earlier, late last year, we announced that you can connect the 2 Starbucks and Delta accounts or loyalty accounts. Hopefully, everyone in this room who's already connected. Show hands. A lot of people have connected, there's more of you to go, okay? We thought we'd acquire 1 million new SkyMiles accounts through that connection. We acquired over 1 million in over a year. We acquired it in 2 weeks. So that talks about the power of brand, the power of alignment of great brands when you bring them together and the magic that occurs. And I'm also excited to announce this afternoon, Ranjan Goswami, who's not our CMO, but he's our Chief Customer Design Officer experience...

And he is very famous.

And very famous and to this crowd is going to be on stage with leaders from Paramount+ and T-Mobile and Atlas Obscura and the New York Times to talk about the next step of the partnership of these big brands coming together to bring value to customers. Well -- and it's all free. Everything that Delta is doing is going to be free here.

Ed, I was taught as I presume you were as well that one is known by the company they keep, and I think we're all privileged to keep company with you today. And with the brands that you're partnering with, it speaks volumes, and congratulations. And I know on behalf of everybody, thank you. This is going to really make travel a hell of a lot better.

It's going to be exciting. And I think there's a video they're going to play here, too.

Absolutely. Please. And stay in your seats because there's one more thing to come when we're done. [Presentation]

So before we conclude this part of the program, there's a little surprise, which the gentleman to my left is going to share with you in a moment. So 2 of you are sitting in a seat that has a gold seal on the front edge of the cushion. So look down in your seats. And I'd like to find the 2 people who have the gold seal. And if you have it, please stand up. It's on the right side of the seat. It's a little gold seal. It's right on the corner. And if there is an empty chair, go jump in it. Okay. Have we found anybody yet? Which side? It's on the right side? It's on the front of the right side, okay? So whoever from the Delta team put those seals out there, can you help people? Can we find one. We got one. Can we have a second? We find somebody there? We got it. There we go, yes. Okay. Great. Thank you for finding those deals, okay? You're going to find this much more interesting. But the 2 of you have just won 3 Delta 1 tickets for 2 anywhere in the world that you want to go on Delta. So thank you... I'd like to thank Oprah Winfrey. I mean Ed Bastian.

Thank you, Michael. Thank you for flying Delta.