Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian stated that he does not have a bad relationship with Elon Musk, despite the fact that this SpaceX founder once predicted that he would lose his job.

"As for me, there's no back and forth between us," Bastian said on Friday in an interview with Phil LeBeau of Squawk Box on the program Squawk Box. When asked if he gave up on Starlink Wi - Fi because he didn't want to work with Musk, he replied, "I really like Starlink. I drive a Tesla."

He added, "The claim that this is a matter of personal grudges is completely untrue. In fact, Delta Air Lines was a pioneer in the world in offering free and high-speed Wi-Fi and setting it as an industry standard." When asked about Musk's post saying he would lose his job, Bastian said, "I don't care at all."

For the first time in two years, profits did not meet expectations.

This interview took place at a time when Delta Air Lines failed to meet Wall Street's profit expectations for the first time in two years and lowered its profit forecast for 2026. Since the start of the Iran war in February, jet fuel prices have risen significantly, resulting in Delta Air Lines' adjusted fuel expenses increasing by 62% year-on-year in the third quarter, reaching $4.1 billion.

However, Delta Air Lines announced that its revenue for the September quarter reached a record $17.6 billion, a year-on-year increase of 16%; pre-tax profit was $1.5 billion, remaining the same as last year. Revenue from premium-class tickets increased by 18% to $6.8 billion; loyalty program revenue also increased by 18%, which means payments related to American Express are expected to exceed $9 billion this year.

Delta Air Lines expects its revenue for the December quarter to grow by about 20%, with annual earnings per share ranging from $5.10 to $5.60, while fuel costs are expected to increase by $6 billion.

These high-end travelers are precisely the customers that Delta Air Lines' competitors are striving to acquire through Starlink.

The dispute with Musk began in March when Delta Air Lines chose Amazon Leo instead of Starlink, and planned to install it on 500 of their aircraft starting in 2028. Delta Air Lines stated that Leo offers retail, Amazon Prime, video, and gaming services at a price far lower than that of Starlink.

In May, Musk gave a different statement. He said that Delta Air Lines hopes that passengers log in through their own Delta Sync portal, which would then direct them to the loyalty program and present Wi-Fi as a benefit of Delta Air Lines, rather than a Starlink service. Musk posted on X, saying, “Delta Air Lines wants to make their customers feel pain, difficulty, and high costs.” Delta Air Lines claimed that this statement is inaccurate.

This controversy took on a more personal dimension in late September. The aviation account JonNYC reported that Bastian once said to employees, "We don't want to cooperate with Elon Musk. Believe me." Although these statements have not been independently verified nor confirmed by Delta Air Lines, Musk still responded on X, claiming that Bastian would "lose his job" due to this decision.

Competitors quickly stepped in. On October 1st, United Airlines introduced a frequent flyer tier matching offer for Delta Air Lines passengers; American Airlines, on the other hand, invited those passengers who "suddenly reconsidered" their loyalty to other airlines to switch to their side. Both of these initiatives were shared by Elon Musk. On Thursday, American Airlines announced that they would deploy Starlink to their entire main fleet, which includes over 1,030 aircraft, with plans to start from 2027.

This makes Delta Air Lines the only of the three major airlines in the United States that has not yet adopted this service. United Airlines signed a contract with Starlink in 2024 and is expected to have its entire fleet connected to this service by the end of 2027, while Delta Air Lines will not begin deploying it until Leo installs it on one of their aircraft.

In the CNBC interview, Bastian did not clarify whether he had indeed made such remarks to his employees. Instead, he focused on the business terms. Bastian mentioned that Delta Air Lines had contacted SpaceX six years ago and lent them aircraft for testing purposes.

“It was great back then. But when we were ready to move forward, they weren’t ready for scaling, and we also had disagreements regarding the business model for customer onboarding,” he said. “I won’t go into too much detail.”

Before the arrival of Leo, Bastian stated that customers using Delta Air Lines' current Hughes and Viasat systems "will see significant improvements by the end of this year."