Delta Air Lines reported a first-quarter loss of $318 million yesterday, from a $256 million loss in the same period last year. Total first-quarter operating revenue rose 13% to $7.75 billion; Delta estimated that severe winter weather and events in Japan took $90 million and $35 million, respectively, off of passenger revenues for the period. Operating expenses climbed 16% to $7.84 billion and Delta had an operating loss of $92 million compared to income of $68 million a year ago. Consolidated yield, including regional flying, rose 12% to 15.32 cents on a 1% increase in traffic to 42.9 billion RPMs. Capacity rose 5% to 56.2 billion ASMs. Load factor was down 3.1% to 76.4% and holding the rise in passenger RASM to 7% to 11.69 cents. Cost per ASM climbed 10% to 13.94 cents. CASM ex-fuel and special items climbed 3% to 8.96 cents.
A 29% rise in fuel costs added $483 million to the operating expenses in Q1. CEO Richard Anderson commented: "We faced significant pressures on our business from rising fuel prices, the impact of events in Japan and significant industry overcapacity in the transatlantic marketplace, erosion in year-on-year pre-tax earnings was attributable to transatlantic performance. In conjunction with Air France, KLM and Alitalia," Delta will cut its post-Labor Day transatlantic capacity 8%-10%, versus the prior year.
The results were net of a special gain of $2 million, including $29 million in hedging gains, mostly offset by $27 million in charges related to fleet retirements and debt extinguishment.
Delta will now ground a further 20 aircraft, including some widebody jets, in addition to the 120 it previously said would leave the fleet over the next 18 months. As a result, capacity (ASMs) for the second half will be down four percentage points compared to previous plans, with post-Labor Day system capacity down 4% on last year. It will maintain capex spending at $1.2 billion over the next five years.