Delta Posts 2nd Qtr Results, Ends Qtr with $5.4 Billion Liquidity

[fflyerworld]

Delta's cash on hand of $5.4 Billion will come in very handy in battling this downturn and upcoming winter months. Will be interesting to see which one of their competitors has the toughest time of survival.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Delta-Air-Lines-Reports-June-prnews-888892431.html?x=0&.v=1

 

[maxblast72]

Why was Delta's systemwide RASM performance a little worse than their peers? Delta's systemwide RASM was down 19.9% (including over 25% drop for the Atlantic and Pacific) while American, United, and Continental were in the 16-17% range.

 

[ACL65PILOT]

Yep, it was. It is also the last quarter we will take a hedge related loss.

Overall better than I expected. Yield is down a ton. Not good, but we had an operating profit, which is great. Cash position is awesome!

 

[nwaredtail]

Yep, it was. It is also the last quarter we will take a hedge related loss.

Overall better than I expected. Yield is down a ton. Not good, but we had an operating profit, which is great. Cash position is awesome!

Considering the % size that DAL is larger than CAL, AMR and UAL, I'll take the numbers and CASH ON HAND all day long. UAL is looking scary.....

 

[Britpilot]

Here are some bullet points:

Passenger revenue decreased 25%, or $2 billion, compared to the prior year period due to the global economic recession, the estimated $125 million to $150 million impact of the H1N1 virus and a 7% capacity reduction. Passenger unit revenue (PRASM) declined 20%, driven by a 19% decline in yield.

Cargo revenue declined 54%, or $200 million, reflecting lower volume and yield due to the recession. Freighter capacity was 50% lower year over year, as Delta continues to reduce capacity to achieve its plan of discontinuing all freighter flying by the end of 2009.

Other, net revenue grew 15%, or $123 million, primarily due to increased baggage fee revenue and improved terms from Delta's affinity card agreement with American Express.

Delta's net loss for the June 2009 quarter was $199 million, excluding $58 million in merger-related expenses(1), or $0.24 loss per share. Delta's reported net loss for the June 2009 quarter was $257 million, or $0.31 per share.

In the June 2009 quarter, consolidated unit costs, excluding fuel and special items, were up 2%, on a 7% decline in system capacity
Delta has achieved more than $200 million in synergy benefits in the first half of 2009 from its merger with Northwest Airlines.
Delta generated $834 million in operating cash flow during the quarter and had $5.4 billion in unrestricted liquidity as of June 30, 2009.

As of June 30, 2009, Delta had $5.4 billion in unrestricted liquidity, including $4.9 billion in cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments and $500 million available under an undrawn line of credit. Delta generated $834 million in cash from operations, and $509 million in free cash flow for the quarter.

Seems to be a decent performance in light of the current environment.

 

[Jiminmem]

I've been a glass half emtpy individual lately, and have to agree not too bad. Still a couple hundred million dollar loss, would be nice to have a solid profit report.

 

[ACL65PILOT]

The operational profit is huge. Do not dismiss that. Take the error in fuel hedging away and we still would have made money with the merger related expenses. In this economy that is very important.
What that says is we have been doing about 90% of this as best as we could.

 

[Jiminmem]

I do agree, I'm very impressed. I just wish we could finally start making some profit once eevrything is factored in. I hate saying we were operationally profitable, just lost our asses in hedging, or some other factor.

If I wasn't on reserve right now I'd actually be raising a cold one to these numbers.

 

[fflyerworld]

Just listening to the call - think Delta is approaching things in a very conservative manner - which in today's environment is a good plan of action. IMO - I believe DL is going to sit back a bit and let the market forces dictate the potential failure of one or more of its competitors as they will be in one hell of great position to take advantage of others failures. As much as I hate to see any company and its employees be taken down and liquidated - I see no other way around it if the current climate continues through this fall and into early next year. May find LCC and UAL for example , sell off slots, gates, aircraft etc just to raise cash to stay afloat and to avoid the big ugly B word and possibly the uglier L word.

 

[fflyerworld]

Delta CFO message to employees worldwide regarding 2nd Quarter Results (from Atlanta Business Chronicle)

http://atlanta.bizjournals.com/atlanta/stories/2009/07/20/daily47.html?ana=yfcpc