Shares of Delta Airlines are up 6.7% shortly after the open after a strong earnings forecast revealed the US consumer are spending again.The company reported:"Earnings per share: $1.71 adjusted vs. $1.53 expectedRevenue: $15.2 billion adjusted vs. $15.06 billion expectedThe numbers for Q3 were stronger than expected but the real driver is the Q4 forecast, with the company seeing $1.60-$1.90 compared to the consensus at $1.65.There was a spring swoon, Delta CEO CEO Ed Bastian said in an interview with CNBC. “Starting in July, cash sales picked up."The way he outlined it, consumers pulled back around Liberation Day but as trade deals started to come, so did the spending."The uncertainty started to clear and people got back out on the road," he said. He said in Q2, domestic sales were down 5% but Q3 is up 2% and the momentum has continued into Q4. He also noted that corporate travel was up 8% in Q3 compared to 1% in Q1 and Q2.This was also revealing:"There are two consumers out there, fortunately we're focused on the premium consumer," he said. "The lower end consumer is clearly struggling."In terms of holiday travel, he said it was early but looking good.I take all of this as a great sign of the US consumer and think airlines are a very interesting spot because they benefit from both the aging demographic (which is wealthy) and the schism between rich and poor.I touched on airlines yesterday in a post where I highlighted how older US cohorts will continue to spend. The JETS ETF of airlines is up 2.9% today.The boomers are absolutely flush and will continue to spend for at least the next 10 years. It breaks all the economic correlations because their spending has virtually zero correlation with employment. There is a huge opportunity in markets to figure out how this will play out. I think it's ultimately inflationary, particularly in an anti-immigrant setting but there are many knock-ons. One spot that comes to mind is travel and airlines, which remain cheap parts of the market that I suspect will be more resilient than the have been in past downturns (whenever a downturn comes). This article was written by Adam Button at investinglive.com.