Delta Reports Record December Load Factors!

[ACL65PILOT]

ATLANTA, Jan. 7, 2009 – Delta Air Lines (NYSE: DAL) today reported December traffic results, including record load factors for its Delta and Northwest operating units. Load factors for Delta system (80.1 percent), Delta domestic (82.3 percent), and Northwest system (81.9 percent) were higher than any previous December on record.
Delta
Delta’s system traffic in December 2008 increased 0.7 percent versus December 2007 on a capacity decrease of 2.4 percent. Delta’s system load factor increased 2.4 points to 80.1 percent.
International traffic increased 9.2 percent year over year on a 13.7 percent increase in capacity, and load factor declined 3.2 points. Domestic traffic decreased 3.7 percent year over year on 10.4 percent lower capacity. Domestic load factor increased 5.7 points to 82.3 percent.
Northwest
Northwest’s system traffic in December 2008 decreased 3.6 percent on a capacity decrease of 4.5 percent. Northwest’s system load factor increased 0.7 points to 81.9 percent.
International traffic decreased 2.0 percent year over year on a 0.3 percent decrease in capacity, and load factor declined 1.4 points. Domestic traffic decreased 4.7 percent year over year on a 7.2 percent decrease in capacity, and load factor increased 2.2 points.

 

[~~~^~~~]

Load factors holding up. Hopefully they will decide the mass 757 parking is too much capacity reduction and this massive displacement is not needed.

 

[Muskycat]

Load factors holding up. Hopefully they will decide the mass 757 parking is too much capacity reduction and this massive displacement is not needed.

They already knew the past numbers. It's the future bookings or the lack there of that is the problem.

 

[ACL65PILOT]

They already knew the past numbers. It's the future bookings or the lack there of that is the problem.

Exactly.
With the forcaseted drop for the summer months, taking 40 seats of each segment makes perfect sense. It is also why this merger works for the company, even if the pilots do not like it.

Taking these seats out but maintaining the frequency affords DAL a lot of wiggle room. For one it reduces the elasticity of of our pricing power. Prior to this merger we would have not been able to do a fleet swap like this. Having 9's, 320's and 88's with lower utilization rates allows us to move airplanes on to different routes quickly.
We will up their utilization rates, and not have to incur the acquisition costs of a new jet. With out this merger you would see our ticket prices fall, and as a result massive losses.
This inturn would result in a loss of frequency and eventually massive furloughs and a liquidity issue. It is not to say that we will not furlough, but it is to say that with out this merger we would be fighting to survive in this environoment.
Do not take the downgrade personally, it would have probably meant a job loss otherwise. In essence the same situation that DAL and NWA just got out of.
As other airlines fail or go CH 11 you will be happy with that five leg md-88 sked.

 

[EatinRamen]

Load factors holding up. Hopefully they will decide the mass 757 parking is too much capacity reduction and this massive displacement is not needed.

Since when did Delta announce they were parking 757s?

 

[767/757]

Since when did Delta announce they were parking 757s?

I believe that NWA has been for the last several months - hence the surpluses in the APAs. These surplus pilots are going to the DC9.

 

[NuGuy]

Exactly.
With the forcaseted drop for the summer months, taking 40 seats of each segment makes perfect sense. It is also why this merger works for the company, even if the pilots do not like it.

Heyas ACL,

With the smallest premerger frame at DAL in the 140+ seat range, this pull back in air travel would have been devastating for the bottom line at DAL.

With no small airframes to utilize, DAL would have been forced to either buy them (NOT likely given any number of reasons), or simply park airframes ane lose frequency. Pay cuts and another assault on scope would have been next.

DAL was massively exposed to exactly the kind of market that is now occuring.

With over 150 airframes in the 100-125 seat range plus another 30 in hot storage, NWA was a godsend.

No wonder everyone was so hot to trot on this thing. DAL management KNEW they were exposed, and had to fix it before the bottom fell out.

RA is good at timimg like that. He got the credit line the morning of 9/11 that saved NWA, and he pulled down the billion in credit line just weeks before the credit market collapsed.

We could do much worse.

Nu

 

[ACL65PILOT]

I agree, and that is why I stated that this merger save both companies. Even if people do not like what will happen in the next three years.

 

[General Lee]

How many FNWA 757 pilots were displaced in this last APA?


Bye Bye--General Lee

 

[FBN0223]

How many FNWA 757 pilots were displaced in this last APA?


Bye Bye--General Lee

Zero B757 pilots displaced for April APA. The next APA (May staffing) comes out on the 20th.

 

[123]

How many FNWA 757 pilots were displaced in this last APA?


Bye Bye--General Lee

I dont' think that any were displaced on the last APA (they are published the 20th of each month). Crew staffing told me that they are going to displace 12-15 a month, depending on bid-outs to other categories (a few captain and widebody FO awards expected). Crew staffing said the only reason they are displacing is because they have to staff the -9 (sounds like a similar situation at DAL and staffing the 88). Nobody wants to hire and the head of pilot hiring said no plans right now for hiring or recalling pilots to NWA. If the economy improves and we are able to begin expansion, that will change, but no hiring in the near term.

 

[maxblast72]

Airtran's load factor was up 7% in December despite the economic mess as well. We will see when 4th quarter results come out in a few weeks, but I would bet both Delta and Airtran are seeing high load factors due to Airtran's dropping of ticket prices as their fuel expense dropped 60%. It is also helping that the rest of the industry is doing some major capacity reductions.

 

[Noserider76]

Exactly.
With the forcaseted drop for the summer months, taking 40 seats of each segment makes perfect sense. It is also why this merger works for the company, even if the pilots do not like it.

Taking these seats out but maintaining the frequency affords DAL a lot of wiggle room. For one it reduces the elasticity of of our pricing power. Prior to this merger we would have not been able to do a fleet swap like this. Having 9's, 320's and 88's with lower utilization rates allows us to move airplanes on to different routes quickly.
We will up their utilization rates, and not have to incur the acquisition costs of a new jet. With out this merger you would see our ticket prices fall, and as a result massive losses.
This inturn would result in a loss of frequency and eventually massive furloughs and a liquidity issue. It is not to say that we will not furlough, but it is to say that with out this merger we would be fighting to survive in this environoment.
Do not take the downgrade personally, it would have probably meant a job loss otherwise. In essence the same situation that DAL and NWA just got out of.
As other airlines fail or go CH 11 you will be happy with that five leg md-88 sked.

This rarely works. You give up market share and decrease units in the hope of maintaining fares and a lower cost someone comes in and fills the capacity. Many times you never get back the position you had prior to the pulldown and you allow a competitor to grow and thrive. Bigger aircraft equal lower CASMs. These guys are high if they think a DC-9 competing with and AirTran 737 or 717 or a SWA 737 isn't going to get it's butt kicked. Maybe they didn't learn anything after the massive post 911 pulldown.

 

[QCappy]

Ok guys. Let's not get too excited. From the quote:
Delta’s system traffic in December 2008 increased 0.7 percent versus December 2007 on a capacity decrease of 2.4 percent.

The increased load factor is a direct result of a decrease in capacity. If capacity was flat and load factor was up, then there would be somehing to cheer about. The point of cutting capacity is to increase the loads on the other remaining flights.

On a side note, Load Factor is a completely decieving number anyway. Load Factor = Revenue Passenger Miles divided by Available Seat Miles. To put it in perspective, and in simple terms, an airline could fly a flight with an airplane of 100 seats 100 miles that was 50% full and a flight of 900 miles with a 100 seat airplane that was 100% full and have a load factor of 95% even though only 75% of the seats were filled overall.