DL's profit does not disappoint.

WorldTraveler

Corn Field
Dec 5, 2003
21,709
10,721
$1.6B pre-tax income before specials.

15.8% operating margin

6% increase in passenger revenues, higher still for cargo and other revenues including refinery sales.

$823M in profit sharing year to date WITH EXPECTATION FOR FULL YEAR TO TOP $1 BILLION

profitable refinery

$10B in accumulated net debt reduction

10-12% operating margin for current quarter

a nearly $400M charge for removing the 744s from the fleet

flat costs.....



and looky here... someone is bent out of shape that DL is succeeding.
 
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indeed, robbed.

and thanks must also extend to DL customers who continue to trust DL to provide quality, reliable air transportation and allow DL to expand its network while maintaining fare premiums to the industry

also, DL's profit estimates indicate that DL sees little slowing year over year in its profits for the rest of the year which says that Ebola is apparently NOT affecting bookings and that DL's strategic plans are not being shaken by the current economic challenges, esp. on Wall Street.

if true, it says that the Ebola and general market issues (or lack thereof) will help all airlines because they are not a DL specific issue.

at this hour, DL stock is leading the airline industry up after days of stock market losses for the industry, perhaps removing investor concern regarding the impact of Ebola.

It is worth noting that DL just noted that Venezuela and Argentina accounted for half of the RASM decline seen in Latin America despite a 15% increase in capacity. Brazil traffic is recovering after the World Cup but S. America will not generate the profits it has for all carriers in the past.
 
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Richard Anderson just confirmed that DL's decision to put capacity into Europe for the month of September before the Air France strike was "perfectly timed" to allow DL to benefit from the decrease in AF capacity and to absorb a considerable amount of the capacity that AF could not fly.

DL says the widebody RFP is progressing toward an end of year conclusion and Airbus and Boeing both presenting strong proposals.

DL says that the market for 10 year old widebodies is well below historical levels and DL is far more focused on refleeting based on ownership and not solely or necessarily operating costs.
 
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Very impressive results for the 3rd quarter. So far this year, through the first three quarters, DL has earned $3.444 billion, excluding special items. For the first two quarters, UA has earned $430 million, excluding special items, and UA is unlikely to catch up in its 3rd quarter results next week.
 
that is absolutely correct, sir.

and it also says why DL has the momentum to grow its network and why it is focusing on the west coast, including to Asia, where UA, not AA is the dominant carrier.

UA is faced with fixing many other structural issues with its network at the same time that it must defend its core markets from the growth of other carriers.

I said all along that DL would shift its focus from the east coast to the west coast when it reached the end of its buildout in NYC and that is what is happening.

as much as you and I and others nitpick over AA and DL in LAX and Asia, the target for both is UA.
 
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Congrats to all the Delta employees for some great 3Q numbers.  May the good news continue to flow thru the industry...
 
Very solid financial results.
Congrats to DL employees.
 
 
BABABOOY said:
.....and the 747 fleet will be retired in 2017
 
That's too bad.  One of the nicest things about DTW is seeing a B747 parked at Gate A40 as you walk into the terminal.
 
Congrats to all the Delta employees for some great 3Q numbers.  May the good news continue to flow thru the industry...
and you know full well that I expect WN to do equally as well if not better.

and I hope it results in a favorable resolution of the WN labor negotiations
 
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Fuel, the airline's biggest single expense, jumped 29 percent to $2.95 billion, as Delta recorded $347 million in charges for adjustments to fuel-hedging. Those are contracts to protect against big spikes in fuel prices, and they can backfire if oil prices fall.
 
Found it interesting Fuel costs were up that high as crude prices fell for the quarter.   Hope it refinery made at least $347 Million?
 
BABABOOY said:
.....and the 747 fleet will be retired in 2017
Always comes with a kick in the pants. 
 
16 744s, replaced with 10 333s. (that were growth airplanes) can't wait for the RFP to park the 767 fleet with less than 58 planes too. 
 
*sigh* Delta is going to be a great (domestic/ Air France/Virgin/KLM feeder) airline. 
 
swamt said:
Congrats to all the Delta employees for some great 3Q numbers.  May the good news continue to flow thru the industry...
other than the 744 news, it was a good day. 
 
robbedagain said:
glad to see DL made a profit for the 3rd quarter.   Great job by all the active employees for helping DL earn the profit.
Also want to say great work for all the employees system wide. 
 
Hope777 said:
Fuel, the airline's biggest single expense, jumped 29 percent to $2.95 billion, as Delta recorded $347 million in charges for adjustments to fuel-hedging. Those are contracts to protect against big spikes in fuel prices, and they can backfire if oil prices fall.
 
Found it interesting Fuel costs were up that high as crude prices fell for the quarter.   Hope it refinery made at least $347 Million?
That was a non-cash paper charge required by the accounting rules that isn't yet a real expense. Depending on the direction of fuel prices, it might become a real expense in the future.

That's why the "excluding special items" profit is the more reliable indicator of performance. It's useful to know about those ticking time bombs that might cause economic expense in the future (hedges gone bad) but those hedge contracts don't mature until future periods.
 
Understand, but airlines that do not hedge will fair better as prices fall.  Learned many years ago while earning my accounting degrees, that One plus One equals whatever the customer wants it to be.
 
"Other" revenue, which includes money collected from fees that passengers pay for many services, jumped 15 percent.   Which is where the higher earnings came from.
 
I expect most Airlines to report Similar Results.  Just a good time for Airlines in General
 
16 744s, replaced with 10 333s. (that were growth airplanes) can't wait for the RFP to park the 767 fleet with less than 58 planes too. 
 
*sigh* Delta is going to be a great (domestic/ Air France/Virgin/KLM feeder) airline. 
 
other than the 744 news, it was a good day.
except if you read the transcript available at Seeking Alpha or listened to the call, DL specifically noted continued reductions of intra-Asia flying with the result that NRT will be less of a hub and more and more as a destination.

The 744 is simply too large to be a hub to destination (hub and spoke) aircraft as long as DL wants to offer 2-3 flights to every major destination in Asia that can be reached from the US.

when you take out the intra-Asia flying, DL's TPAC capacity will probably be flat. and aircraft utilization could very well improve when you pull out a lot of short-haul flying within Asia.

Do you realize that a roundtrip from NRT to most of NE Asia including as far south as TPE doesn't even take 8 hours on aircraft that are best suited to fly 12 hour plus sectors?

it isn't hard to see how fewer aircraft are needed if they are used more efficiently.

no, DL is not turning its network over to its JV partners either in Asia (where DL doesn't have one) or Europe where it has 3.

It is shifting resources to where they can produce the highest margins.

that's what profit motivated companies do. And for an airline it applies equal to employees and aircraft.
 
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