DALLAS — The price of air travel is poised to rise again, with airlines seeing beyond recent fare wars that have cut into their profits.

Delta Air Lines third-quarter profit fell more than 6 percent to $1.18 billion, partly because Hurricane Irma robbed the company of $140 million in revenue from canceled flights.

The hurricane’s impact was already known, however, so investors are more likely to seize on Delta’s prediction Wednesday that revenue for each seat flown one mile – a closely watched measure of pricing power in the airline business – will rise by up to 4 percent over last year during the fourth quarter.

That forecast comes a day after American Airlines and United Airlines reported that the same key revenue figure would be better than expected in the third quarter, which ended Sept. 30.

U.S. airline stocks tumbled during July and August over concern that overly rapid expansion and fare wars – primarily between United and budget carrier Spirit Airlines at several big airports – were hurting profits.

Those fears now appear to be overblown.

Delta’s shares inched higher, just one day after a broad rally in airline stocks. The leading airline stocks have regained most of their summer losses and demand for travel is still strong.

Strong demand “is overcoming some of those pricing skirmishes that you read about in our industry,” Delta CEO Ed Bastian told CNBC.

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