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Delta's Q3 revenue miss makes 'things more challenging': Analyst

Delta Air Lines (DAL) fell short of estimates for the airline operator's third quarter, posting profits of $1.50 per share ($1.52 was expected) and revenue of $14.59 billion ($14.68 billion expected). Delta CEO Ed Bastian cited the CrowdStrike (CRWD) outage to have shaved off $0.45 from the company's adjusted earnings per share. “The five days were really, really tough on our people as well as our customers. But in, in the weeks immediately following CrowdStrike, our company was back on top as the No. 1 position in terms of industry reliability, as we've been all year long," Bastian told Yahoo Finance. The Morning Brief welcomes Bloomberg Intelligence analyst George Ferguson to talk more about the earnings print "The results are a little bit muddy from CrowdStrike, but labor costs were up 13% year-over-year. So, labor continues to be a big challenge for the airlines. And again, with this revenue, this unit revenue declining, that makes things more challenging," Ferguson says, explaining the struggle an airline like Delta will face as it strives to grow in the marketplace. Expanding the outlook to the broader airline industry: "Southwest (LUV), JetBlue (JBLU) were cutting capacity. So I think the quarter will be challenging. But usually when you're in a cutting capacity mode or at least sort of growing less fast... you'll see firmer fares that will help some of their results." Ferguson also comments on Hurricane Milton's impact on the regional Florida market for flights in and out of the state, as well as how Delta and other airlines could assume the costs of Boeing's (BA) ongoing labor strike. To watch more expert insights and analysis on the latest market action, check out more Morning Brief here. This post was written by Luke Carberry Mogan.