US Airlines Reduce Profit Forecast Due to Economic and Safety Concerns

A new report indicates that the impact of international tariffs and reduced government spending by United States President Donald Trump and his administration have negatively impacted the country’s aviation industry.

According to Reuters.com, fear across the travel industry regarding plane safety, weak economic growth, and high inflation have forced the top U.S. airlines to slash first-quarter profit forecasts, with the S&P 500 passenger airlines index being down about 15 percent this year.

Delta Air Lines and United Airlines reported that stocks have fallen around 20 percent in 2025, while Frontier Airlines is down two percent. To overcome the financial woes, American Airlines, Allegiant, Delta, Frontier, JetBlue, and United have all reduced their April-June quarter capacity over the last two weeks.

“Your first needs are food and shelter. And then, we're a little bit down the list of expenditures,” Breeze Airways CEO David Neeleman told Reuters. “If you don't have a job, you're not going to go buy an airline ticket.”

If the demand for air travel doesn’t rebound during the second quarter, aviation officials, including United CEO Scott Kirby, that carriers will start to slash routes and frequencies by the second half of August.

Recent data supports the report, as Airlines Reporting Corp (ARC) announced last week that air tickets sold through U.S. travel agencies fell eight percent in February compared to the 39 percent increase in January.

Information from the U.S. Transportation Security Administration also found that annual growth in passenger traffic slowed to 0.7 percent in March from five percent in January.

"There's going to be some type of slowdown," Frontier CEO Barry Biffle told Reuters.

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