Delta Air Lines Q2 Profit Rises 4%, Tops Estimations

Delta Air Lines Inc. DAL announced a 4 percent increase in its net income for the second quarter despite revenue witnessing two percent downtick as total operating expenses dipped three percent. While its adjusted earnings exceeded by $0.05 a share, revenue has more or less met the expectations.

Delta Airlines said that its net income was $1.55 billion, up 4 percent from $1.49 billion in the year-ago quarter. Earnings per share grew 11 percent to $2.03 from $1.83 in the comparable period. Its adjusted net income for the latest quarter was $1.1 billion or $1.47 a share. Street predicted $1.42 a share. The highest estimation among the analysts was $1.46 a share.

The airline firm's revenue fell two percent to $10.45 billion from $10.71 billion in the previous year quarter. Analysts expected the company to generate $10.49 billion revenue.

The company indicated its aircraft fuel and related taxes fell 16 percent to $1.23 billion from $1.46 billion in the same quarter last year. Its revenue passenger miles (RPM) grew 3.0 percent whereas available seat miles advanced 3.2 percent. However, passenger mile yield and passenger revenue per available seat mile witnessed a drop of 4.7 percent and4.9 percent respectively.

The airline firm's CEO, Ed Bastian, stated, "The Delta people again delivered another quarter of solid profitability, superior operational performance and great customer service, continuing to strengthen our brand and our foundation for the future. "As we look to the remainder of the year, the large year-on-year savings driven by lower fuel are largely behind us and it is important to achieving our long-term financial targets that we get unit revenues back to a positive trajectory."

Delta Airlines' President, Glen Hauenstein, also reacted, "While the revenue environment remains challenging, with persistent headwinds from close-in domestic yields and geopolitical uncertainty, we remain focused on achieving our goal of positive unit revenues by year end. We'll continue to move quickly and aggressively with all our commercial levers, including an incremental 1 point reduction in our December quarter capacity levels, to make sure we create the momentum we need to achieve this goal."

The company said $1.6 billion free cash flow was used in part for $1.1 billion in dividends and share repurchases.