Associated Press
Delta's March Traffic Up 14.4 Percent
Tuesday April 5, 1:48 pm ET Delta Air Lines' March Traffic Up 14.4 Percent As Passenger Boardings, Capacity Increase
ATLANTA (AP) -- Delta Air Lines Inc. said Tuesday that March traffic rose 14.4 percent from last year on increased capacity and more passenger boardings.
The airline flew 10.11 billion revenue passenger miles in March, up from 9.06 billion last year. A revenue passenger mile is defined as one paying passenger flown one mile.
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Capacity, or how many seat miles were available for purchase, increased 7.8 percent to 12.93 billion from the March 2004 level of 11.99 billion.
Delta said system load factor, or the percentage of seats filled with passengers, grew to 80.1 percent in March from 75.5 percent last year. The airline boarded 10.4 million passengers in March, up 10.2 percent from a year ago.
For the year to date, Delta flew 27.22 billion revenue passenger miles, an increase of 12.3 percent, from the 24.25 billion miles flown during the comparable period last year. Capacity grew 6.4 percent to 36.55 billion from 34.36 billion last year. Delta's load factor for the period improved to 74.5 percent from 70.6 percent a year ago. On the year, the airline boarded 27.4 million passengers, up 8.2 percent from a year ago.
Delta shares rose 10 cents, or 2.5 percent, to $4.10 in afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
Delta's traffic grew at about twice the rate of its growth in capacity, I'm not sure if that's a result of better marketing or not, but it is a positive sign. The big unknowns are of course revenue and costs. I expect fuel nuetral mainline CASM to be down about 7%-9% year over year, but I'm sure that those improvements will be negated by the increase in fuel costs. Hopefully Delta's revenues will be up with the increased traffic.
Delta's March Traffic Up 14.4 Percent
Tuesday April 5, 1:48 pm ET Delta Air Lines' March Traffic Up 14.4 Percent As Passenger Boardings, Capacity Increase
ATLANTA (AP) -- Delta Air Lines Inc. said Tuesday that March traffic rose 14.4 percent from last year on increased capacity and more passenger boardings.
The airline flew 10.11 billion revenue passenger miles in March, up from 9.06 billion last year. A revenue passenger mile is defined as one paying passenger flown one mile.
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Capacity, or how many seat miles were available for purchase, increased 7.8 percent to 12.93 billion from the March 2004 level of 11.99 billion.
Delta said system load factor, or the percentage of seats filled with passengers, grew to 80.1 percent in March from 75.5 percent last year. The airline boarded 10.4 million passengers in March, up 10.2 percent from a year ago.
For the year to date, Delta flew 27.22 billion revenue passenger miles, an increase of 12.3 percent, from the 24.25 billion miles flown during the comparable period last year. Capacity grew 6.4 percent to 36.55 billion from 34.36 billion last year. Delta's load factor for the period improved to 74.5 percent from 70.6 percent a year ago. On the year, the airline boarded 27.4 million passengers, up 8.2 percent from a year ago.
Delta shares rose 10 cents, or 2.5 percent, to $4.10 in afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
Delta's traffic grew at about twice the rate of its growth in capacity, I'm not sure if that's a result of better marketing or not, but it is a positive sign. The big unknowns are of course revenue and costs. I expect fuel nuetral mainline CASM to be down about 7%-9% year over year, but I'm sure that those improvements will be negated by the increase in fuel costs. Hopefully Delta's revenues will be up with the increased traffic.
