Delta Sees Traffic, Capacity Increase for April

Delta aircraft in Atlanta

Delta Air Lines announced operational results for April 2016.

The Atlanta-based carrier’s total system traffic for the month was 17.34 billion revenue passenger miles, or RPMs, a year-over-year increase of 2.7% from 16.89 billion in April 2015.  Domestic traffic rose 3.5% to 10.74 billion RPMs from 10.38 billion last year, while international traffic rose to 6.6 billion RPMs, a 1.4% increase from 6.51 billion RPMs last April.

Total system-wide capacity for the month increased 2.5% to 20.81 billion available seat miles, or ASMs, from 20.3 billion last year.  The airline’s domestic capacity was 12.59 billion ASMs, a year-over-year increase of 4.3% from 12.07 billion in April 2015, while international capacity decreased 0.1% year-over-year to 8.22 billion ASMs from 8.23 billion during April of last year.

The carrier reported an increase in the system-wide load factor, with a rise of 0.1 percentage points to 83.3% from 83.2% last April.  Delta’s domestic load factor decreased 0.6 percentage points to 85.3% from 85.9%, while its international load factor increased by 1.2 percentage points to 80.3% from last year’s 79.1%.

The carrier said that its consolidated passenger unit revenue, or Prasm, for the month decreased by 4%, reflecting “recent trends of pressure from close-in domestic yields and foreign exchange.”

(Photo: Accura Media Group)