Delta Air Lines Inc. (DAL) said Tuesday it expects to report a full-year profit despite forecasting a 14% drop in operating revenue for the first quarter.

Ed Bastian, Delta's president, said the airline expects to break even on a pretax level for the first quarter and move into profit in the second quarter. He said the company could still remain in the black even if operating revenue were to fall by as much as 18%.

Delta also affirmed that it will keep its order for 18 Boeing 787s, an order originally placed by merger partner Northwest Airlines.

Delta is the North American launch customer for the type, but had omitted the order from its annual report published last week, fueling speculation it may be canceled or deferred.

The world's largest airline by revenue is cutting capacity and benefiting from lower fuel costs as it deals, alongside its rivals, with sharp falls in traffic.

Bastian told a JPMorgan Chase conference that the revenue picture shouldn't deteriorate from the first quarter, traditionally the weakest for airlines in the northern hemisphere.

Delta expects the negative impact of fuel hedges to unwind by the end of the second quarter, eliminating the losses that blighted earnings at many carriers over the past two quarters.

The airline said that, beginning in September, it would cut international routes by 10%. That's in addition to domestic capacity cuts announced December.

Bastian said Delta should get more than $1 billion of financial benefits in 2010 from last year's merger with Northwest. Early in 2010 Delta will switch to a new reservations system, combining the two carriers' operations.

Delta also said it has financing in place for all of the aircraft it has on order. Shares were up 8.7% at $4.55 in recent trading Tuesday.

-By Ann Keeton, Dow Jones Newswires; 312-750-4120, Ann.keeton@dowjones.com.