American Express is benefiting from rising consumer spending on its co-branded Delta Air Lines credit cards as the carrier expects income from the tie-up to top $9 billion this year.

Delta CEO Ed Bastian sang the praises of the loyalty credit card program partnership with Amex on a conference call Friday to discuss Delta’s second-quarter earnings results.

The second-quarter was the seventh consecutive quarter in which spending on the companies’ co-branded cards climbed by double digits, benefiting in particular from the holders of the most expensive cards, he said.

“With continued momentum in both new card acquisitions and spend, we expect remuneration of $9 billion this year, up 10% over 2025,” Bastian told analysts on the webcast call.

Under the co-brand card pact, Amex pays the airline for its loyalty program’s currency and then card holders can earn those points through their spending, and apply them toward travel and other perks through Delta’s SkyMiles program.

New York-based Amex has had a card partnership with Atlanta-based Delta for three decades, benefitting from their twin focus on wooing a wealthy set that spends heavily on their premium Reserve cards that have a $650 annual fee.

One reason the airline prizes its partnership with Amex is the similarity in the companies’ approach to the business, Bastian said.

The brands “have the exact same strategy, the exact same demographic in terms of who we're looking to reach, incredibly complementary and building on each other's strengths,” Bastian said. “And that's why you see the compounded effect year after year after year.”

The glowing report from Delta and hat tip to Amex comes despite worries earlier this year that the U.S. and Israeli war on Iran would hurt travel spending. The negative impact on travel has happened in fits and starts as the on-again, off-again war has unfolded since its beginning in February, with another ceasefire ending last week.

The positive travel spending commentary from Delta could point to a lift for card company earnings reports for the quarter ending with June that kick off with Amex on July 24.

Earnings reports from several banks Tuesday also signaled healthy card spending. “Results across the board showed sequential acceleration in total card volumes,” Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Ramsey El-Assal said in a Tuesday note to clients. “Despite ongoing macro and geopolitical uncertainty, we view today's healthy card volumes as a constructive read-through” for Visa and Mastercard.

While Amex has partnerships with other international airlines, including Cathay Pacific and British Airways, its only U.S. branded card partner is Delta.

“One of the wonderful benefits of our relationship with American Express is we're two companies that are, first, exclusive with each other,” Bastian explained.

The two companies most recently extended their co-brand agreement in 2019 and it’s scheduled to expire in 2029, though they’d presumably seek to extend it, if it’s bolstering their bottom lines. Amex operates a card network as well as a bank that issues the cards.

Delta expects to add another 1 million Amex cards this year, the company’s chief commercial officer, Joe Esposito, forecast on the Friday earnings webcast.

“American Express is a great partner, and we're very aligned on our strategic vision about where we grow,” Esposito told analysts, noting that the tie is a “critical part” of how the carrier makes expansion plans domestically and internationally.

“We're very aligned on our strategic vision about where we grow,” Esposito said.