AMZN
DAL
The internet beef before the earnings beat
Delta Air Lines is walking into earnings season with a weird side quest: Elon Musk is publicly dunking on its in-flight Wi-Fi. In a post on X, he joked that Delta flights are the perfect place to test AI models because, as he put it, getting online is basically a myth up there.
Why the Starlink snub matters
This isn’t just billionaire trolling for engagement points. Musk has been hammering Delta for choosing Amazon’s Leo satellite internet service over Starlink, and that choice has turned into a mini branding battle in the middle of an airline earnings week. If you’re Delta, that’s not ideal timing — nobody wants the conversation about their operational performance to be hijacked by a Wi-Fi slap fight.
Earnings are the real test
Delta is scheduled to report third-quarter 2026 earnings before the opening bell on Friday, and Wall Street is looking for EPS of $1.76 on $18.92 billion in revenue. That puts the spotlight back on the stuff that actually moves the stock: pricing, demand, margins, and whether the airline can keep proving it’s more than just a flying complaint box with wings.
Big picture
The Starlink dust-up probably won’t decide Delta’s quarter by itself, but it adds another layer to the story. If the numbers are strong, the Wi-Fi drama is just noisy turbulence. If not, every little jab suddenly feels louder.