Delta Air Lines (DAL) Stock Up on Upbeat May Traffic Report

Delta Air Lines’ DAL May traffic report was impressive with key metrics increasing significantly. Strong demand for air travel helped the carrier register a healthy year-over-year increase in consolidated traffic for the month.  The upbeat demand can be gauged from the fact that 18.1 million passengers travelled on Delta flights in May. Additionally, load factor (percentage of seats filled by passengers) increased as traffic growth outweighed capacity expansion.

Consolidated traffic, measured in revenue passenger miles (RPMs), increased 7% to 21.06 billion. Consolidated capacity (or available seat miles/ASMs) also climbed 5.3% to 22.03 billion on a year-over-year basis. Consolidated load factor increased 130 basis points to 87.6%. The strong traffic report found favor with investors. Consequently, the stock gained 4.2% to touch $54.31 on Jun 4.

The presence of the Memorial Day weekend undoubtedly boosted traffic in the month. In the May 24-27 period, the carrier was responsible for flying more than 2.1 million passengers without a single mainline cancellation.  In fact, a record 666,769 passengers were transported on May 24.

Additionally, this Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company recorded an on-time performance (mainline) of 86.7% and a completion factor (mainline) of 100%. On a year-to-date basis, Delta’s load factor increased 30 basis points to 84.4%.

You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Stocks to Consider

Investors interested in the broader Transportation sector may consider SkyWest SKYW, GATX Corp. GATX and Fly Leasing FLY. While SkyWest and GATX carry a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy), Fly Leasing sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

SkyWest, GATX and Fly Leasing flaunt an encouraging earnings history, having outperformed the Zacks Consensus Estimate in each of the trailing four quarters.

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SkyWest, Inc. (SKYW) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
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