Delta reports $586 million net income for second quarter

July 25, 2012


Helped by strong revenue growth, Delta reported a $586 million profit for the second quarter.

“Delta’s solid profit this quarter (excluding special items) is evidence that our business and industry are evolving and delivering meaningful improvements,” Richard said in a release Wednesday. “I am grateful for the hard work of the entire Delta team that produced these results and I congratulate them on earning $135 million in profit sharing so far this year.”

The net income of 69 cents a share before one-time items beat Wall Street estimates. Under U.S. accounting rules, Delta formally reported a $168 million loss after subtracting costs for employee buyouts, paper losses on its fuel hedge portfolio and other one-time expenses in the quarter that ended June 30. Last year Delta earned $198 million including one-time charges in the same three months.

Total revenue increased 6 percent despite Delta flying 1.3% less capacity than last year’s second quarter. Strong demand –especially from corporate travelers*– increased total traffic by 0.3% despite the airline flying less. Delta has outperformed the industry on unit revenue for 15 consecutive months.

“By actively managing the business through capacity adjustments and pricing actions, we expect to maintain our solid revenue performance despite the continuing weak economic backdrop,” Ed said in the release. The Pacific region saw revenue increase 20% over last year as demand and pricing recovered strongly from last year’s tragic earthquake and tsunami in Japan.

Delta’s improved earnings were aided by exceptional operational performance, Paul said in a memo to employees Wednesday. “By all measures, these are some of the best financial and operational results in Delta’s history and I appreciate all of your hard work that went into producing them,” he said in the memo.

Fuel costs remain historically high even as crude oil prices moderated in the last half of the quarter. Delta paid $3.37 a gallon in the quarter including losses on its fuel hedges settled and took a $561 million charge to “mark to market” the value of its future fuel hedges based on the quarter-end fuel prices. That one-time charge was significantly smaller than earlier forecast because fuel prices rose in the quarter’s final week.

Delta expects to benefit from lower fuel prices for the second half of the year, estimating that it will pay $3.09 a gallon for the third quarter and $3.05 a gallon for the fourth quarter.

Delta remains on track to lower net debt to $10 billion by next year as it has cut $5 billion of the $7 billion targeted. Less debt lowered interest payments and improves results, which translates into better profit sharing for employees.

Richard said the outlook is encouraging for the summer quarter, traditionally Delta’s strongest.

“Moving forward, we expect to have strong profitability in the September quarter with a 10 – 12% operating margin as we continue to look for innovative ways – such as the Trainer refinery acquisition and the LaGuardia expansion – to build a stronger Delta for our shareholders, employees and customers,” Richard said.