Delta Traffic, Load Factor Down in December

Delta Air Lines announced operational results for December 2017.

The Atlanta-based carrier’s total system traffic for the month was 16.73 billion revenue passenger miles, or RPMs, a year-over-year decrease of 0.4% from 16.8 billion in December 2016.  Domestic traffic stayed even, at 10.63 billion RPMs, while international traffic decreased to 6.1 billion RPMs, a 1.1% drop from 6.12 billion RPMs the previous December.

Total system-wide capacity for the month rose to 19.87 billion available seat miles, or ASMs, from 19.7 billion ASMs, a 0.9% increase. The airline’s domestic capacity was 12.65 billion ASMs, a year-over-year increase of 2.1% from 12.39 billion in December 2016, while international capacity decreased by 1.3% year-over-year, down to 7.22 billion ASMs from 7.31 billion last year.

Load factor for the month was 84.2%, down 1.1 percentage points from 85.3% last December. Delta’s domestic load factor dropped by 1.8 percentage points to 84.1% from 85.9%, while its international load factor increased by 0.1 percentage points to 84.4% from last year’s 84.3%.

(Photo: Accura Media Group)