Delta CEO Ed Bastian says AI could boost profits by 50% as airline tests AI-set fares on 3% of tickets

AnnaMarie Houlis

Mon, August 24, 2026 at 7:00 PM GMT+3 5 min read

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Delta Air Lines is betting big on artificial intelligence (AI) — and the technology could eventually change not just how the airline operates, but how much passengers pay to fly.

In a recent discussion, Delta CEO Ed Bastian said AI could ultimately improve the airline's profitability by as much as 50%, largely by helping the company make faster, smarter decisions and reduce costs. Bastian described the opportunity as potentially moving Delta's profit margin from around 10% to 15%, which would amount to billions of dollars.

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"When you think about what AI does, it allows you to hopefully make better decisions," he said on Scott McCartney's "Airlines Confidential" podcast. "And because you have more access to data, more timely, it gives you a clearer perspective of what the opportunities are. And our industry, our company, we have lots of decisions we have to make every day — whether it's how we're managing the daily operations or what's happening in the maintenance realm and with our engines and the history of the engines."

One particularly consequential part of Delta's AI strategy is airfare pricing.

Delta has already been testing AI to determine ticket prices, raising a question travelers may soon be asking: Could the price on the screen eventually be determined specifically for you?

Delta is already letting AI help set fares

Airlines have used sophisticated revenue-management systems for decades, so fluctuating airfare prices are nothing new. A seat can become more expensive as a flight fills up, for example, or cheaper when an airline needs to stimulate demand.

What Delta is currently testing takes that concept further, however.

The airline has been working with Fetcherr, an AI pricing company, to help determine fares. In July 2025, Delta said AI was influencing three percent of its fares, with a goal of reaching 20% by the end of that year. Delta President Glen Hauenstein previously described the technology as a "super analyst" capable of working around the clock to determine the appropriate price for a flight at a particular moment.

Hauenstein also described a longer-term vision in which traditional fare-setting and inventory management could merge into what Delta called "offer management" — essentially creating a price available on a particular flight, at a particular time, to a particular customer.

That prospect alarmed consumer advocates and lawmakers. In July 2025, Senators Mark Warner, Ruben Gallego and Richard Blumenthal questioned Delta about whether AI could eventually be used to charge individual customers different prices based on their personal information and willingness to pay.

"Individualized pricing, or surveillance-based price setting, eliminates a fixed or static price in favor of prices that are tailored to an individual consumer's willingness to pay," they wrote. "Delta's current and planned individualized pricing practices not only present data privacy concerns, but will also likely mean fare price increases up to each individual consumer's personal 'pain point' at a time when American families are already struggling with rising costs."

Could your ticket price eventually be unique to you?

The possibility is still what has consumers concerned.

Delta's own comments suggest a future in which pricing could become much more individualized, but its response to lawmakers has emphasized that it is not currently using personal data to set fares, nor does it have plans to do so.

"There is no fare product Delta has ever used, is testing or plans to use that targets customers with individualized prices based on personal data," Delta wrote in 2025. "Furthermore, we have zero tolerance for discriminatory or predatory pricing and fully comply with applicable laws in privacy, pricing and advertising. Our AI-powered pricing functionality is designed to enhance our existing fare pricing processes using aggregated data."

The technology, it continued, is a "decision-support tool" that the airline uses to "oversee" and "fine-tune" business strategy.

"To be clear, Delta's ticket prices are dictated by market dynamics and vigorous competition," the airline continued. "In fact, the AI pricing functionality recommends pricing adjustments in both directions to enhance market competitiveness and drive sales, benefiting both our customers and our business."

Delta says its current AI pricing technology relies on aggregated information, such as demand for particular routes and flights, competitive pricing and market conditions. The company also says it does not share customers' personal information with Fetcherr.

And Delta is hardly alone in exploring increasingly sophisticated pricing algorithms.

The House Oversight Committee has been investigating so-called "surveillance pricing," in which companies could use information such as location, browsing history, purchase history, device information and other data to determine what different consumers pay. The committee cited allegations involving Uber, where one report found significant differences in prices shown to users for the same trip. Uber has disputed claims that it uses customers' personal characteristics to set prices.

For travelers, the biggest concern isn't simply that airfare changes. It is whether two people sitting next to each other could eventually pay dramatically different amounts for the same flight because an algorithm believes one person will tolerate a higher price.

For now, one distinction is important: AI-powered dynamic pricing is not necessarily the same as personalized pricing.

But Delta's ambitions to fundamentally rethink airfare pricing means the question isn't going away. The next evolution of airline pricing may not simply be, "how much is this flight?" It could be, "how much is this flight for you?"

Delta CEO Ed Bastian says AI could boost profits by 50% as airline tests AI-set fares on 3% of tickets

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Delta is already letting AI help set fares

Could your ticket price eventually be unique to you?

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