Delta Reports Increase in Traffic, Drop in Prasm for January

Delta Air Lines announced operational results for January 2016.

The Atlanta-based carrier’s total system traffic for the month was 15.57 billion revenue passenger miles, or RPMs, a year-over-year increase of 3.7%, up from 15.01 billion in January 2015.  Domestic traffic rose 6.4% to 9.3 billion RPMs from 8.74 billion last year, while international traffic remained the same from last January at 6.28 billion RPMs.

Total system-wide capacity for the month increased 1.1% to 19.15 billion available seat miles, or ASMs, from 18.15 billion last year.  The airline’s domestic capacity was 11.47 billion ASMs, a year-over-year increase of 3.7% from 11.06 billion in January 2015, while international capacity decreased 2.6% year-over-year, down to 7.68 billion ASMs from 7.89 billion during January of last year.

The carrier reported an increase in system-wide load factor, with a rise of 2.1 percentage points, up to 81.3% from 79.2% last January.  Delta’s domestic load factor also increased, up 2.1 percentage points to 81.1% from 79%, while its international load factor also increased by 2.1 percentage points, up to 81.7% from last year’s 79.6%.

The carrier said that its consolidated passenger unit revenue, or Prasm, for the month decreased by 3%, reflecting “1.5 points of pressure from foreign exchange.”

(Photo: Accura Media Group)