Originally Posted by
FabCW
Inflation is about to pick up (it’s math: tariffs will raise prices, even on domestic products). It’s Economics 101. If the stock market confirms its losses this week, it will further hurt future consumer spending and industry investment. Basically, Americans are about to be poorer. There is no doubt this will affect travel spending.
Before airlines will decrease airfare prices, they will adjust their schedules to match demand.
We are entering the “FO” phase of FAFO. Stay tuned!
Moreover, the response overnight from multiple Asian governments was to plan stimulus to their economies rather than compensatory tariffs (China was the only exception to the compensatory tariffs on Friday). That is inflationary in the home country first, followed by weakening of that home currency to the USD. Which makes it more expensive for any of them to invest in the USA, or buy American goods, which is the exact opposite of what this "policy" was trying to achieve in the first place. Maybe this part is ECON 201, but it's still not very hard to understand. Unless we are now playing the game of "my recession won't be as bad as your recession", and calling that a win.
Delta has had its share of self-inflicted wounds over the past two years (Crowdstrike, 2023 SkyMiles "Enhancements"), and now they get to see how hard is to adjust to the self-inflicted wounds from something way bigger. This may even prove to be operationally more unpredictable to manage than COVID even though the two events could not be more different.