Delta Air Lines Profit Forecast Review by Evercore Partners

Equities research analysts at Evercore Partners raised their earnings per share estimates on shares of Delta Air Lines in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday. They currently have an “underweight” rating and a $8.00 price target on the company’s shares.

Separately, analysts at Barclays Capital cut their price target on shares of Delta Air Lines from $16.00 to $14.00 in a research note to investors on Thursday, September 1st. They now have an “overweight” rating on the stock. Also, analysts at Dahlman Rose upgraded shares of Delta Air Lines from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note to investors on Monday, August 1st. They now have a $10.00 price target on the stock.

Delta Air Lines, Inc. (Delta) provides scheduled air transportation for passengers and cargo throughout the United States, and around the world. The Company’s route network is centered on the hub system it operate at airports in Atlanta, Cincinnati, Detroit, Memphis, Minneapolis/St. Paul, New York-JFK, Salt Lake City, Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Amsterdam and Tokyo-Narita. The hub operations include flights, which gather and distribute traffic from markets in the geographic region surrounding the hub to domestic and international cities and to other hubs. The network is supported by a fleet of aircraft, which is varied in terms of size and capabilities. On December 31, 2009, the Company’s wholly owned subsidiary Northwest Airlines, Inc. (NWA) merged with and into Delta. The wholly owned subsidiary of the Company is Northwest Airlines Corporation (Northwest). In July 2010, Pinnacle Airlines Corp. acquired Mesaba Aviation, Inc. from Delta Air Lines.

Delta Air Lines last announced its quarterly results on Wednesday, July 27th. The company reported $0.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the previous quarter, missing the Thomson Reuters consensus estimate of $0.49 EPS by $0.06. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 12.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts predict that Delta Air Lines will post $0.09 EPS next quarter.

Shares of Delta Air Lines traded up 5.01% during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $8.39. Delta Air Lines has a 52 week low of $6.41 and a 52 week high of $14.54. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $7.35 and its 200-day moving average is $9.20. The company has a market cap of $7.098 billion and a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.61.

Airlines Passenger Will Difficulty to Get Airlines Cheap Flight Tickets

In the complicated world of airfares, the search for cheap flights got a lot more difficult for passengers. In the past week, both Delta and American Airlines have pulled their airfares from popular online search engines.

This past week, American failed to reach an agreement with Orbitz and airfares for American Airlines flights will no longer be available through Orbitz and their online site. In a similar agreement, Delta Airlines pulled their airfares from cheapoair.com, OneTravel.com, and Bookit.com. While these airfares are still being sold on Travelocity and Priceline, it makes the future of airfares very uncertain.

Many argue that these moves by American Airlines and Delta Airlines were an attempt to save money and increase revenues by cutting out the middle man. If passengers book fees on airfare search engine sites like Orbitz, the airline must pay them a fee for doing so. By not allowing their airfares on these sights, this saves them money and forces passengers to book directly with the airline website where other options like travel insurance and other add ons can bring in more revenue.

The impact on air travel and airline passengers

While other airlines have not made this move, they will keep a careful eye on how this works out for American and Delta. Southwest has always advertised their airfares on their website only and recently ran a commercial to see how many people were aware of this. However, this move could signal a change in the airline industry.

U.S. Airlines Converging on Suddenly Summer Season in Mexico

Leading American airlines are stepping up to give Mexico the airlift it needs as tourism increases and in the wake of Mexicana Airlines folding this past summer.

Continental Airlines, United Airlines and Delta Air Lines have all announced plans to launch a slew of new flights to Mexico from several important North American travel hubs. The flights come hot on the heels of Mexico Tourism’s announcement of a 19.2 percent increase in international tourist arrivals via air to Mexico from January to August of this year.

The new flights are a welcome addition to already planned flights by AeroMexico, British Airways, US Airways, Frontier Airlines, Virgin America and China’s Hainan Airlines.

From January to August of this year, the number of international tourists arriving in Mexico by air increased by 19.2 percent, in comparison to the same period last year and 6 percent in comparison to 2008, one of Mexico’s strongest tourism years on record. From January to August 2010, Mexican airports received 7.1 million foreign visitors. The U.S. continues to be the main market source for travelers into Mexico. In the first eight months of 2010, 4.33 million American travelers arrived in Mexico, a 15.7 percent increase in respect to the same period in 2009 and a 1.9 percent increase over 2008.

Approximately 61 percent of international tourists to Mexico are Americans, according to Mexico’s Tourism Secretariat (Sectur).

Flight Plans

In October, Continental announced its plans to launch a daily nonstop service between Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) and Leon/Guanajuato, Mexico (BJX) beginning November 1, pending Mexican government approval. This new service will complement Continental’s existing service to Leon/Guanajuato from Houston. In fact, no other carrier offers more departures from the U.S. to the Leon/Guanajuato airport. In addition, Continental Airlines has filed an application with the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) for permission to launch weekly nonstop flights to Cancun from Austin and San Antonio in Texas and Raleigh-Durham in North Carolina. Once approved, this service would begin on February 19, 2011. Currently, Continental Airlines serves 30 Mexican destinations, more than any other American airline. The airline presently serves Cancun 76 times weekly from its travel hubs in Houston, Newark and Cleveland.

In addition to the new flights planned by Continental, United Airlines is boosting service into Mexico City from hubs in Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles and San Francisco. United will launch a second daily flight from Los Angeles to Mexico City beginning October 15, and a third daily flight starting January 14, 2011. Starting November 4, United will up its current Saturday-only service from Chicago to Mexico City to twice-daily service and their daily service from San Francisco to Mexico City to twice-daily, as well. United will also begin offering once-daily service to Mexico City from Denver between December 16 and January 3, 2011, perfect for a holiday getaway. In regards to other Mexican destinations, United Airlines currently serves Cancun 31 times weekly from its hubs in Denver, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco and Washington-Dulles.

Rounding out the announcement of new flights is Delta Air Lines, who plans to launch new nonstop Saturday flights from Memphis, to Mexico City starting January 8, 2011, pending Mexican government approval. The short 3.5 hour flight will leave Memphis at 9:15 a.m. and arrive in Mexico City International Airport (Benito Juarez International Airport) at 12:40 p.m.

Return flights are scheduled to leave Mexico City at 1:42 p.m. and arrive in Memphis at 5 p.m. Mexico is currently the city of Memphis’ second-largest trading partner, and the new flight will not only be a hit with tourists, but with business leaders seeking to strengthen ties to Mexico. This new flight will add to Delta Air Lines’ already existing seasonal flights to the Mexican beach resort cities of Cancun and Cozumel.

Delta Air Offers $1 Billion to Japan Air, Rivals AMR

Delta Air Lines Inc. and its SkyTeam alliance partners offered as much as $1 billion in incentives to lure Japan Airlines Corp. away from the Oneworld group led by American Airlines.

SkyTeam airlines may invest $500 million in Japan Air, and Delta would supply $200 million in financing and $300 million to cover lost sales, Delta President Edward Bastian said today. American’s bid may consist of $1 billion from private-equity firm TPG Inc. and $300 million from the airline.
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Ghana’s Response Delta Airlines Flight Route Services

Ghana’s directive urging the Atlanta-based Delta Airline to improve its New-York-Accra service and treat passengers in a more humane manner is long overdue, but a welcome development that exemplifies how governments respond to the concerns of its citizenry.
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Airlines Incident: Delta Airlines B738 at Seattle on Jan 10th 2009, Engine Failure

The crew of a Delta Airlines Boeing 737-800, flight DL1249 from Seattle,WA to Cincinnati,KY (US), declared emergency and returned to Seattle Airport after one engine failed while the airplane climbed through 11000 feet. The landing on runway 16L 24 minutes after takeoff was safe. Read more