Delta Airlines has posted a net income, excluding special items, of 768 million dollars or 0.90 dollar per diluted share in its September 2012 quarter.
Its Generally Accepted Accounting Principles net income was 1.0 billion dollars, including mark-to-market gains on open fuel hedges and other special items, while its unit revenues went up three per cent in the quarter under review.
A statement issued by Delta's Atlanta office and copied to the Ghana News Agency in Accra said the company has produced a unit revenue premium to the industry for 18 consecutive months.
Results included 174 million dollars in profit sharing expense, for a total of 309 million dollars year to date, in recognition of Delta employees' efforts toward the company's financial targets.
Delta people also received 67 million dollars in Shared Rewards in 2012 for hitting the company’s operational and customer service targets and ended the September 2012 quarter with 5.1 billion dollars in unrestricted liquidity and adjusted net debt of 11.9 billion dollars.
Mr Richard Anderson, Delta's Chief Executive Officer stated that "Delta's strong September quarter results combined with industry-leading operations and customer service reflect an improved industry structure and our consistent investment in the business. We will continue on this path as we progress into 2013".
He noted that with a more stable financial foundation, the airline was now focused on positioning itself for long-term margin expansion, sustained profitability and shareholder returns instead of short-term profit gains.
Delta's operating revenue grew 107 million dollars, or 1 per cent, on 1.5 per cent lower capacity in the September 2012 quarter compared to the September 2011 quarter. Load factor for the quarter increased 0.3 points year over year to 86.4 per cent.
Passenger revenue increased 1 per cent, or 124 million dollars, compared to the same period in 2011. Passenger unit revenue increased 3 per cent, driven by a 3 per cent improvement in yield while Cargo revenue decreased by 5 per cent, or 14 million dollars, with lower cargo yields partially offset by higher volumes.
Other revenue also decreased 3 million dollars as lower third-party maintenance revenues were partially offset by higher code share revenue.
The statement said: "Our solid revenue performance reflects the benefits of capacity discipline, strong operational performance and the investments we have made in our products and service.
"We expect our revenue performance to benefit from our continued capacity discipline and further corporate travel gains and we are forecasting our October unit revenues to increase 4 – 5 per cent year over year."