Delta Air Lines' (DAL) October Traffic & Load Factor Increase

Shares of Delta Air Lines, Inc. (NYSE:DAL) have struggled despite reporting better-than-expected third-quarter revenues and earnings per share on Oct 11. Since the company announced the third quarter results, the company has lost 5.1%, as against the S&P 500’s gain of 1.1%.

Markedly, multiple headwinds like high fuel costs, back-to-back hurricanes have hurt the entire airline space. Naturally, Delta is no exception.

Amid this gloomy backdrop, this Atlanta, GA-based company received good news when it reported encouraging traffic data for the month of October. Consolidated traffic — measured in revenue passenger miles (RPMs) — came in at 18.3 billion, up 4.1% year over year. The upside was driven by a 4.9% increase in domestic RPMs.

Consolidated capacity (or available seat miles/ASMs) expanded 3.1% to 21.29 billion on a year-over-year basis. The metric increased 4.7% and 0.6% on the domestic and international fronts, respectively.

Consolidated load factor or percentage of seats filled by passengers, improved 90 basis points to 86%. This is because traffic growth outweighed capacity expansion in October leading to packed planes. Additionally, the airline recorded an 89.4% on-time performance and 100% completion factor (mainline) for the same month.

At the end of the first ten months of 2017, Delta generated consolidated RPMs of 184.83 billion (up 2.3% year over year) and ASMs of 215.56 billion (up 0.8% year over year). Notably, load factor was 85.7% versus 84.5% recorded in the same period last year.

Zacks Rank & Stocks to Consider

Delta has a Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell). Investors interested in the broader Transportation sector may consider Deutsche Lufthansa (OTC:DLAKY) , Avianca Holdings (NYSE:AVH) and Hertz Global Holdings (NYSE:HTZ) . While Lufthansa sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), Avianca and Hertz Global Holdings hold a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Shares of Lufthansa, Avianca and Hertz Global Holdings have gained 43.5%, 1% and 82%, respectively, over the last three months.

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