Delta’s Fourth Quarter Profit Falls 37 Pct

January 12, 2017

Delta Air Lines posted a 37 percent drop in fourth quarter net income to USD$622 million, mainly due to a new agreement with its pilots.

Operating revenue for the quarter to end December was USD$9.46 billion, down from the prior year’s USD$9.5 billion.

Salaries and related costs showed a 30 percent increase to USD$2.87 billion, which includes the USD$475 million total annual cost of the backdated pilot contract.

Traffic in revenue passenger miles edged up 0.8 percent to 50 billion, and capacity in available seat miles was 58.7 billion, a 0.9 percent increase. The passenger load factor was down 0.1 percentage points to 85.1 percent.

For the full year Delta reported net income of USD$4.37 billion, down 3.3 percent from 2015.

Looking forward, Delta said its 2017 first quarter passenger unit revenue would be between flat and up 2 percent.

(Airwise)