What is a cash flow waterfall?

A cash flow waterfall is a bar chart that walks from operating cash flow through capital expenditure to free cash flow, then shows how the remaining cash is allocated — acquisitions, buybacks, dividends, debt, and other financing — ending at the net change in cash. Each step is colour-coded: green bars add to the running total, red bars subtract.

How does Delta Air Lines (DAL) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q2 2026, Delta Air Lines generated $8.13B of operating cash flow and $6.07B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 74.6% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Delta Air Lines (DAL) return via buybacks and dividends?

The waterfall shows buybacks (share repurchases) and dividends paid as separate steps in the financing section. Together these represent Delta Air Lines's shareholder returns for TTM through Q2 2026. You can compare these against free cash flow to assess the capital-return payout ratio.

Delta Air Lines (DAL) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$8.13B

Capex

-$2.07B

Free Cash Flow

$6.07B

FCF Margin

+74.6%

Cash flow waterfall for Delta Air Lines (DAL) — TTM through Q2 2026

Free cash flow: $6.07B

Note: Other Investing is large — driven mainly by purchases or sales of investments.

Cash flow breakdown for Delta Air Lines (DAL) — TTM through Q2 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$8.13B	$8.13B
Capital Expenditure	-$2.07B	$6.07B
Free Cash Flow	$6.07B	$6.07B
Other Investing	-$2.47B	$3.6B
Dividends Paid	-$502M	$3.09B
Net Debt Change	-$1.45B	$1.64B
Other Financing & FX	$601M	$2.24B
Net Cash Increase	$2.24B	$2.24B

Operating Cash Flow$8.13B
Capital Expenditure-$2.07B
Free Cash Flow$6.07B
Other Investing-$2.47B
Dividends Paid-$502M
Net Debt Change-$1.45B
Other Financing & FX$601M
Net Cash Increase$2.24B

Want to see what drove the FCF change?Free Cash Flow Bridge

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