Delta posted its first quarterly loss in more than five years as coronavirus destroyed air travel demand. //

The airline spent the quarter shoring up cash and slashing expenses to combat the sharp drop in revenue. Delta's is carrying about 5% of its normal passenger loads, Bastian told CNBC.

The carrier burned through $100 million a day at the end of March, a rate it expects to halve by the end of the second quarter.

Delta posted a net loss of $534 million for the first three months of the year. On an adjusted basis, Delta reported a per-share loss of 51 cents, compared with analysts' estimates for a 70 cent per-share loss in the first quarter. Delta shares were up 2.6% in premarket trading. //

"The decade of work we put into the balance sheet to lower debt and build unencumbered assets has been critical to our success in raising capital and we expect to end the June quarter with approximately $10 billion in liquidity," Delta's CFO Paul Jacobson said in a release.