'The pace of the recovery is going to continue to improve' looking forward: Delta CEO

Delta CEO Ed Bastian joined Yahoo Finance Live to break down his thoughts on the recovery of the airline industry andDelta's recent quarterly earnings.

Video transcript

ADAM SHAPIRO: But much closer in time is when Delta returns to profitability. Now they lost in the first quarter on a pre-tax adjusted level close to $3 billion. But when I spoke to Ed Bastian, the CEO at Delta, he told me that he sees profitability back by June.

ED BASTIAN: We are pleased that we were able to turn this business cash positive in the month of March. We generated $4 million a day of positive cash flow, all in. And I think that's really a remarkable achievement, given that we're only 12 months into the pandemic, the worst crisis in our history. And we've been able to turn the corner on that. I expect, as we look at bookings going forward, that recovery-- the pace of the recovery is going to continue to improve. And certainly, for the second quarter, we expect to be cash positive yet again.

It's remarkable, Adam, that 12 months into this pandemic, the worst crisis we've ever seen in our industry, that we've been able to turn cash positive. It really speaks to the resilience of this enterprise, the great work, the persistence of our people, the loyalty, the strength of the brand we've built, and the power that we've been able to do it without much corporate travel, without international travel, and without filling the middle seat. So, given that, I feel very, very good about that [INAUDIBLE].

Since the fall, we've already paid down about $7 billion of debt. And in the second quarter, we're going to be looking to pay down another $3 billion of debt, including making a significant contribution into our pension plan. And we hope by the end of this year to actually have our pension plan fully funded and something that will not require any further contributions going forward. So there's a lot we're doing on the debt side to pay down and to help the wellness and the resiliency of our balance sheet, as well as our product and our people coming through the pandemic.

ADAM SHAPIRO: Seana, I still want you to know that Delta's guidance for the next quarter, the quarter we're in right now, revenue's going to be down anywhere from 50% to 55% compared to 2019.

SEANA SMITH: I guess that could be a big reason why the stock might be under pressure today. But Adam, did you get a chance to ask him about vaccine passports? Because this is something that has been so controversial. We've heard some businesses come out in support of it. Others are adamantly opposed. Where does Delta stand?

ADAM SHAPIRO: They don't like the term of vaccine passports or COVID passports. But they do like the idea of documentation. Here's what Bastian said when I asked him about it.

ED BASTIAN: Yeah, we don't call it a vaccine passport. It carries too many connotations. We're more focused on credential, travel credential, if you will, to indicate that you've been vaccinated and/or tested based on the regulatory requirements. These are questions that are going to be answered by the regulators across the world, not by the airlines per se. We don't have a specific point of view on that.

But I anticipate in order to open up international borders, it's going to be important for travelers to show some form of immunity from the virus, either a vaccination or a test. We're working with a number of technology providers to be able to facilitate that in an open source way so that-- make it easy for customers to pull up their vaccination credential and streamline their travel. I don't see it happening for domestic travel. But I think it could very well be required for international.

ADAM SHAPIRO: And Seana, it's important to point out that the idea of having documentation for a vaccine is nothing new. There are lots of countries that require that if you travel internationally, long before COVID-19.