“If we could take two, three, four points of our cost down from making smarter, better decisions over a series of several years — my gosh — you look at a margin at Delta, you go from a 10% margin to a 15% margin, it's a 50% improvement in your profitability. These things are billions of dollars substantial... I never refer to AI as artificial. I always call it augmented intelligence. It's going to make our people smarter and better.”

Ed BastianCEO

CEO, Delta Air Lines

Bastian framed the gain as coming 'over a series of several years,' scored here against an end-of-2030 horizon; Delta reported an 8.8% adjusted operating margin in Q2 2026 and guided to 11-13% for Q3 2026.