Delta Shows International Traffic Declines

(MoneyWatch)  I know that I was just crowing about how load factors started creeping up again in December, but not all the signs have been good. If you look at Delta's December traffic report, for example, you'll see that international traffic is suffering. That's quite alarming news for those carriers who have put all their eggs in that basket over the last few years.

It's funny, because the weakness in the domestic world caused airlines to cut back so much that they saw strong gains in load factor. Delta showed a 2.4 point increase in load factor in the entire system in December, but domestic load factor climbed by 5.7 points. That, of course, means international was a drag.

Pacific loads actually climbed, but for Delta, that's a very small piece of the business. Their bread and butter is the Atlantic, which accounts for about 25 percent of their available seat miles (ASMs). As they have made quite clear in the past, they have really been building up the Atlantic a lot with an 18.1 percent ASM increase year-over-year. Unfortunately, revenue passenger miles (RPMs) only increase 12.9 percent. Translation? There were a lot more seats out there but not nearly as many passengers to fill them. Atlantic load factor dropped 3.6 points for the month.

Incidentally, it appears to be an Atlantic problem more than anything. Delta's Northwest subsidiary didn't grow in the Atlantic, but it saw a traffic decline there. When we look at the Pacific, I mentioned Delta has a very small presence, but Northwest generates 25 percent of its total ASMs over that ocean. They kept their Pacific system relatively flat year over year, but there was a slight gain in traffic numbers.