Delta Air Lines' Stock Flying Higher After Q1 Earnings Top Expectations

Shares of

were trading higher by more than 2 percent Thursday morning after the company reported its

Delta Air Lines said that it earned $1.32 per share in the first quarter on revenue of $9.25 billion. Wall Street analysts were expecting the company to earn $1.30 per share on revenue of $9.27 billion. Net income for the quarter rose to $946 million from $746 million in the same quarter a year ago as the company saw its operating revenue decrease 1.5 percent, or $137 million. Passenger unit revenues fell 4.6 percent in the quarter, including 2 points of impact from foreign exchange, on a 2.7 percent increase in capacity. "The momentum with our commercial initiatives, including corporate share gains, Branded Fares, and our partnership with American Express, allowed us to maintain our top line performance in the March quarter despite 40 percent lower market fuel prices and $125 million of pressure from foreign currency," said Glen Hauenstein, Delta's incoming president. "We are forecasting a unit revenue decline of 2.5 – 4.5 percent for the June quarter. While this is an improvement over our March quarter performance, we are focused on getting unit revenues back to a positive trajectory and we will make adjustments to our fall capacity levels if we are not making sufficient progress over the coming months."