Delta Air Hit By Falling International Traffic In March
April 06 2009 - 2:58PM
Dow Jones News
Delta Air Lines Inc. (DAL) said Monday its international
passenger traffic fell 15.1% in March, far worse than declines seen
by its largest rivals.
The Atlanta-based carrier is continuing to roll out targeted
expansion of its overseas network, but suffered larger year-on-year
declines on transatlantic and Latin America services than American
Airlines and Continental Airlines Inc. (CAL).
Delta is the largest U.S. operator across the Atlantic, and
business fell 13.9% last month, measured in revenue passenger
miles. This compares with an 8.8% fall at Continental and a 12%
drop at American, a unit of AMR Corp. (AMR).
The performance on Latin American routes was even worse, with
Delta off 17% in March. American, the market leader in services to
and from the region, suffered a 14% decline and third-ranked
Continental was down 4.8%.
Its transpacific business, largely inherited from merger partner
Northwest Airlines Inc., was down 16% in March.
Delta did not provide guidance on revenue trends. Continental
said last week that passenger revenue fell by almost 20% in March,
driven by the industrywide decline in premium traffic.
Atlanta-based Delta's mainline domestic traffic fell 13.3%,
while capacity dropped 11.2% as it joined other carriers in
trimming unprofitable schedules and parking or returning
aircraft.
Overall, Delta's passenger traffic was down 12.6% while capacity
fell 7.9%.
Delta shares were up 3% at $6.84 in late session trading.
-By Doug Cameron, Dow Jones Newswires; 312-750-4135;
doug.cameron@dowjones.com