If investors were questioning whether airline stocks could keep rallying, Delta Air Lines has provided an emphatic answer. The carrier’s fourth-quarter earnings and positive outlook for 2025 gave the sector’s stocks permission to take off again early Friday.

Delta Air Lines on Friday reported fourth-quarter fiscal 2024 revenue and adjusted earnings that topped analysts' estimates.

Delta Air Lines expects a strong appetite for high-end travel to fuel profit in 2025, said Chief Executive Ed Bastian. The forecast comes as the airline posted better-than-expected revenue growth in the latest quarter as demand picked up.

Delta Air Lines Inc. beat Wall Street’s profit estimates for the final months of 2024, buoyed by gains in international and corporate travel. The company says it expects strong demand to continue into the new year.

Delta Air Lines could see 2025 becoming the airline’s best financial year since its founding a century ago, fuelled by consumers’ appetite for travel and the growing number willing to shell out for premium seats,