Boston, MA 04/24/2014 (wallstreetpr) – Despite severe weather woes Delta Air Lines, Inc. (NYSE:DAL) was able to pick up in its first quarter as evident from its robust growth in the period. Moreover, the carrier said that it is shifting its focus towards loftier financial goals.
Solid Growth Story
On Wednesday, Delta Air Lines, Inc. (NYSE:DAL) revealed its financial results ended on March, 2014, wherein, its profit was broadly higher from $7 million or $0.01 per share last year to $213 million or $0.25 per share this year. Excluding one-time charges, earnings per share came in at $0.33 against $0.10 per share, a year earlier and comfortably beating the analysts’ estimates of $0.29 per share. During this time, its revenue grew 4.9% to $8.92 billion. In the first quarter, Delta’s seats flown per mile or in other words; capacity grew 2%, and the carrier plans to increase it 2-3% more in the second quarter. In the meanwhile, its passenger unit revenue climbed 3.2%, while its unit costs rose 0.3%. The load factor, or portion of seats filled grew from 81.2% to 82.7% at the same time.
Ambitious Plans Ahead
The Atlanta-based carrier’s robust numbers came in at a time when the airline industry had to face the challenge of brutal weather during January and February leading to more than 17,000 flight cancellations. Apparently, the cancellations translated into a $90 million loss in revenue and $55 million lower pretax income to the company. However, as Delta Air Lines, Inc. (NYSE:DAL) gets over the phase successfully, it aims for several other long term and ambitious plans, which includes 10-12% operating margin, to generate a 15% return on capital invested and to attain operating cash flow goal of $5 billion, with half of it reinvested in the company.
Delta Air Lines, Inc. (NYSE:DAL) is ranked third among the U.S. carriers, behind American Airlines Group Inc. (NASDAQ:AAL) and Uninted Continental Holdings Inc. (NYSE:UAL). The three of the carriers have enhanced their size mainly through effecting large mergers in the recent past.
