Delta Sees Increase in March Traffic

Delta Air Lines announced financial results for March 2014.

The Atlanta-based carrier’s total system traffic for the month was 17.55 billion revenue passenger miles, or RPMs, a year-over-year increase of 2.5%, up from 17.12 billion in March 2014.  Domestic traffic rose 3.7%, up to 10.9 billion RPMs from 10.52 billion last year, while international traffic rose 0.7% to 6.64 billion RPMs, up from 6.6 billion during the same period of 2014.

Total system-wide capacity for the month increased 2.9% to 20.64 billion available seat miles, or ASMs, from 20.1 billion last year.  The airline’s domestic capacity was 12.53 billion ASMs, a year-over-year increase of 2.9% from 12.17 billion in March 2014, while international capacity also increased, up 2.8% year-over-year, to 8.1 billion ASMs from 7.89 billion during March of last year.

The airline reported a decrease in system-wide load factor, with a drop of 0.3 percentage points, down to 85% from 85.3% last March.  Delta’s domestic load factor increased by 0.6 percentage points, up to 87% from 86.4% last year, while international load factor decreased 1.7 percentage points, down to 82% from last year’s 83.7%.

The carrier said that its consolidated passenger unit revenue, or Prasm, for the month saw no change year-over-year.

(Photo: Accura Media Group)