Berkshire Hathaway has taken a $2.6 billion stake in Delta Air Lines. That makes it their fourteenth largest investment as they look for places to deploy nearly $400 billion in cash.
Warren Buffet is now 95 years old and has stepped down as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway but remains its chairman. Given his history, it’s hard to imagine Buffett returning to airline investing, except on the most unusually favorable of terms.
Airlines are a terrible business. They’re capital-intensive, unionized and heavily regulated. Much of their product is determined or provided by the government (airports, security, air traffic control, staffing, signoff on cabin elements). There’s very little moat. And Buffett learned this lesson.
- Warren Buffett famously quoted Richard Branson in his 1996 investor letter that the easiest way to become a millionaire quickly is to “Start as a billionaire and then buy an airline.”
- In 2007, reflecting on how bad an investment airlines are, Buffet wrote that a “farsighted capitalist” should have done humanity a favor by shooting Orville Wright down at Kitty Hawk.
- Buffett said he had a toll-free number to call whenever he felt the urge to buy an airline stock: “My name is Warren and I’m an aeroholic,” and then they would talk him down.
In 1989 Berkshire put $358 million into USAir convertible preferred stock carrying a 9.25% dividend, and conversion into common at $60 per share. That made the investment look safer than the underlying business was, and Buffett later called it an “unforced error” and “sloppy analysis.” From 1990 – 1994, USAir lost $2.4 billion, wiping out shareholders, and they suspended their dividend on Berkshire’s preferred shares in 1994. Berkshire wrote the investment down by 75%, although in the end they actually recovered the position – attributable to luck.
In 2016, Berkshire returned to the airlines with stakes in American, Delta, United, and Southwest. Consolidation, bankruptcies and capacity discipline meant that buying airlines at low valuations might earn a return. Buffett didn’t argue airlines were good businesses, but by the end of 2019 they owned a significiant diversified portfolio of the major carriers:
- Delta: 11%
- American: 10%
- Southwest: 10%
- United: 9%
They sold their airline stakes in April 2020 at a substantial loss, and said they did not want to keep funding companies that would “chew up money” in the future.
Now, Berkshire’s Form 13F for the quarter ended March 31, 2026 which was filed May 15, 2026, reports 39,809,456 shares of Delta Air Lines, valued at $2.6465 billion at the end of Q1. That’s about a 6.1% stake in the airline. Delta is up meaningfully on the news in after hours trading.
Buffett may no longer be chief executive, but Delta was certainly happy to release this in their own 13F:
It will be interesting to see how this third attempt goes for Berkshire Hathaway – and, needing some place to park $400 billion, whether they’re tempted deeper into the airlines.
