Delta Reports Financial and Operating Performance for October 2012

      Delta Reports Financial and Operating Performance for October 2012

PR Newswire

ATLANTA, Nov. 2, 2012

ATLANTA, Nov. 2, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Delta Air Lines (NYSE: DAL) today
reported financial and operating performance for October 2012.

During the month of October, Delta's unit revenues improved 5.5 percent versus
prior year, primarily due to corporate revenue gains and continued capacity
discipline.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20090202/DELTALOGO)

In response to Hurricane Sandy, Delta cancelled more than 3,500 flights in
October, which caused a 2 percent system capacity reduction versus prior
year.  The company is estimating that the hurricane negatively impacted
October revenues by $45 million and reduced October profit by approximately
$20 million.  Delta is still assessing the impact to November, but expects it
to be less than October.  Delta's October unit revenue improvement was
approximately one point higher than it would have been without the hurricane
impact. 

Delta's New York area operations are recovering from the storm's disruption. 
As of Thursday, Delta is operating at close to full schedule at New York-JFK
and Newark, and operating at 80 percent of its normal schedule at LaGuardia. 
The company anticipates flying a full schedule at LaGuardia today.

"I'm proud of the efforts of Delta's employees throughout the system in
responding to the devastation of Hurricane Sandy and taking care of our
customers," said Richard Anderson, Delta's chief executive officer.  "It's
during events such as these that the team's dedication to our passengers
really shines."  

Despite the impacts of the hurricane, Delta continued to have excellent
operational performance in October.  Delta's completion factor was 98 percent,
and 85.5 percent of flights arrived on time.

The company's financial and operational performance is detailed below. 

Preliminary Financial and Operational Results

 
October Consolidated PRASM change year over year           5.5%
Projected December quarter fuel price per gallon, adjusted $3.15 – 3.20
October On-time performance (preliminary DOT A14)          85.5%
October Mainline completion factor                         98.0%

Note: Fuel price includes taxes, transportation, settled hedges, and hedge
premiums, but excludes mark to market adjustments on open hedges.

Delta Air Lines serves more than 160 million customers each year. During the
past year, Delta was named domestic "Airline of the Year" by the readers of
Travel Weekly magazine, was named the "Top Tech-Friendly U.S. Airline" by
PCWorld magazine for its innovation in technology, won the Business Travel
News Annual Airline Survey and was the recipient of 12 Executive Travel
Magazine Leading Edge Awards for U.S. airlines. With an industry-leading
global network, Delta and the Delta Connection carriers offer service to
nearly 313 destinations in 58 countries on six continents. Headquartered in
Atlanta, Delta employs 80,000 employees worldwide and operates a mainline
fleet of more than 700 aircraft. A founding member of the SkyTeam global
alliance, Delta participates in the industry's leading trans-Atlantic joint
venture with Air France-KLM and Alitalia. Including its worldwide alliance
partners, Delta offers customers more than 13,000 daily flights, with hubs in
Amsterdam, Atlanta, Cincinnati, Detroit, Memphis, Minneapolis-St. Paul, New
York-LaGuardia, New York-JFK, Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Salt Lake City and
Tokyo-Narita. The airline's service includes the SkyMiles frequent flier
program, a world-class airline loyalty program; the award-winning
BusinessElite service; and more than 50 Delta Sky Clubs in airports worldwide.
Delta is investing more than $3 billion through 2013 in airport facilities and
global products, services and technology to enhance the customer experience in
the air and on the ground. Customers can check in for flights, print boarding
passes, check bags and review flight status at delta.com.

Forward Looking Statements

Statements in this investor update that are not historical facts, including
statements regarding our estimates, expectations, beliefs, intentions,
projections or strategies for the future, may be "forward-looking statements"
as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.  All
forward-looking statements involve a number of risks and uncertainties that
could cause actual results to differ materially from the estimates,
expectations, beliefs, intentions, projections and strategies reflected in or
suggested by the forward-looking statements.  These risks and uncertainties
include, but are not limited to, the cost of aircraft fuel; the impact of
posting collateral in connection with our fuel hedge contracts; the impact of
significant funding obligations with respect to defined benefit pension
plans; the impact that our indebtedness may have on our financial and
operating activities and our ability to incur additional debt; the
restrictions that financial covenants in our financing agreements will have on
our financial and business operations; labor issues; interruptions or
disruptions in service at one of our hub airports; our increasing dependence
on technology in our operations; the ability of our credit card processors to
take significant holdbacks in certain circumstances; the possible effects of
accidents involving our aircraft; the effects of weather, natural disasters
and seasonality on our business; the effects of an extended disruption in
services provided by third party regional carriers; our ability to retain
management and key employees; competitive conditions in the airline industry;
the effects of the rapid spread of contagious illnesses; and the effects of
terrorist attacks.  

Additional information concerning risks and uncertainties that could cause
differences between actual results and forward-looking statements is contained
in our Securities and Exchange Commission filings, including our Annual Report
on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended Dec. 31, 2011 and our Quarterly Report
on Form 10-Q for the quarterly period ended September 30, 2012. Caution should
be taken not to place undue reliance on our forward-looking statements, which
represent our views only as of November 2, 2012, and which we have no current
intention to update.

               Monthly Traffic Results (a)         Year to Date Traffic Results (a)
               Oct 2012    Oct 2011    Change      Oct 2012     Oct 2011     Change
RPMs (000):
 Domestic      9,695,519   9,779,263   (0.9%)      96,875,221   97,097,076   (0.2%)
    Delta      7,750,000   7,676,545   1.0%        77,114,494   76,606,421   0.7%
    Mainline
    Regional   1,945,519   2,102,718   (7.5%)      19,760,727   20,490,655   (3.6%)
 International 6,335,111   6,200,864   2.2%        66,843,057   66,675,315   0.3%
    Latin      949,463     850,055     11.7%       11,498,217   11,038,265   4.2%
    America
        Delta  936,892     834,727     12.2%       11,360,584   10,865,527   4.6%
    Mainline
               12,571      15,328      (18.0%)     137,632      172,738      (20.3%)
    Regional
    Atlantic   3,383,974   3,489,098   (3.0%)      34,610,114   35,953,767   (3.7%)
    Pacific    2,001,674   1,861,711   7.5%        20,734,727   19,683,283   5.3%
 Total System  16,030,631  15,980,127  0.3%        163,718,278  163,772,391  (0.0%)
ASMs (000):
 Domestic      11,444,588  11,596,848  (1.3%)      114,809,444  116,439,360  (1.4%)
    Delta      9,029,487   8,985,361   0.5%        89,944,073   90,405,785   (0.5%)
    Mainline
    Regional   2,415,101   2,611,487   (7.5%)      24,865,371   26,033,575   (4.5%)
 International 7,499,062   7,697,781   (2.6%)      80,193,884   82,476,958   (2.8%)
    Latin      1,158,065   1,101,793   5.1%        14,125,647   14,000,000   0.9%
    America
        Delta  1,139,889   1,076,137   5.9%        13,921,308   13,741,763   1.3%
    Mainline
               18,176      25,656      (29.2%)     204,339      258,237      (20.9%)
    Regional
    Atlantic   3,933,327   4,224,659   (6.9%)      41,083,376   44,139,546   (6.9%)
    Pacific    2,407,669   2,371,329   1.5%        24,984,861   24,337,412   2.7%
 Total System  18,943,650  19,294,629  (1.8%)      195,003,327  198,916,318  (2.0%)
Load Factor:
 Domestic      84.7%       84.3%       0.4     pts 84.4%        83.4%        1.0     pts
    Delta      85.8%       85.4%       0.4     pts 85.7%        84.7%        1.0     pts
    Mainline
    Regional   80.6%       80.5%       0.1     pts 79.5%        78.7%        0.8     pts
 International 84.5%       80.6%       3.9     pts 83.4%        80.8%        2.6     pts
    Latin      82.0%       77.2%       4.8     pts 81.4%        78.8%        2.6     pts
    America
        Delta  82.2%       77.6%       4.6     pts 81.6%        79.1%        2.5     pts
    Mainline
               69.2%       59.7%       9.5     pts 67.4%        66.9%        0.5     pts
    Regional
    Atlantic   86.0%       82.6%       3.4     pts 84.2%        81.5%        2.7     pts
    Pacific    83.1%       78.5%       4.6     pts 83.0%        80.9%        2.1     pts
 Total System  84.6%       82.8%       1.8     pts 84.0%        82.3%        1.7     pts
Mainline       98.0%       99.7%       (1.7)   pts
Completion
Factor
Passengers     14,060,273  13,950,958  0.8%        139,102,929  138,348,803  0.5%
Boarded
Cargo Ton      205,342     208,024     (1.3%)      1,996,377    1,980,333    0.8%
Miles (000):
Endnote:
^aResults include flights operated under contract carrier arrangements.

 

 

SOURCE Delta Air Lines

Website: http://www.delta.com
Contact: Corporate Communications, +1-404-715-2554, news archive at
news.delta.com, or Investor Relations, +1-404-715-2170