Berkshire Just Broke Warren Buffett’s Most Famous Rule and Poured $2.65 Billion Into This Airline

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Omor Ibne Ehsan

Mon, June 22, 2026 astatine 11:55 AM CDT 4 min read

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Greg Abel spent $2.65 cardinal connected Delta (DAL), straight contradicting Buffett's celebrated presumption that airlines deficiency durable competitory advantages.
Delta's Amex concern topped $2 cardinal successful 1 quarter, giving it a loyalty moat that United (UAL) and Southwest (LUV) cannot match.
Delta's premium and loyalty streams present relationship for 62% of revenue, with absorption guiding to astir 20% net maturation successful 2026.
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Berkshire Hathaway, present nether CEO Greg Abel, disclosed successful its Q1 2026 13F filing the acquisition of astir 40 cardinal shares of Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL), a presumption valued astatine astir $2.65 billion.

$2.65 BILLION DELTA AIR LINES STAKE' successful bold achromatic letters. To the right, a exemplary of a Delta Air Lines airplane connected a woody basal and a brace of tortoise-shell speechmaking glasses are visible. In the background, a ample model reveals a panoramic presumption of a metropolis skyline astatine sunset, with a Delta Air Lines airplane taking disconnected successful the sky.

The disclosure landed alongside afloat exits from Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN), UnitedHealth (NYSE:UNH), and Domino's Pizza (NASDAQ:DPZ), which makes the hose bargain the loudest awesome of a caller posture wrong Omaha.

Warren Buffett, remember, dumped each hose holding successful 2020 and erstwhile said "a durable competitory vantage has proven elusive to the hose manufacture since the days of the Wright Brothers." Abel conscionable spent $2.65 cardinal arguing the enactment nary longer applies to Delta.

Why Delta, and wherefore present

The fundamentals Berkshire was looking astatine erstwhile it built the involvement person moved good beyond the post-pandemic wreckage Buffett walked distant from. Delta posted full-year 2025 escaped currency travel of $4.643 billion, a record, portion adjusted nett indebtedness fell $3.68 cardinal to $14.30 billion. Q1 2026 adjusted EPS came successful astatine $0.64, a 44% year-over-year jump, connected gross of $14.20 billion, up 9.4%. That is what a equilibrium expanse looks similar erstwhile it has stopped pretending to beryllium an hose and started behaving similar a branded user franchise with a substance cost.

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The premix is the thesis. Premium summons gross roseate 14% to $5.363 billion, loyalty gross climbed 13%, and American Express remuneration topped $2.00 cardinal successful the quarter, up 10% twelvemonth implicit year. Diversified, high-margin streams present relationship for 62% of full adjusted revenue, up from 59%. CEO Ed Bastian framed the durability directly, saying "Delta's results underscore the powerfulness of our marque and the durability of our fiscal foundation." That is Buffett vocabulary, applied to a assemblage Buffett refused to own.

Valuation lined up. Delta trades astatine a trailing P/E of 12x and a guardant P/E of 15x, with instrumentality connected equity of 25% and analysts moving 5 Strong Buys and 20 Buys against a azygous Strong Sell.

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