ATLANTA, United States (AFP) - Delta Air Lines said losses nearly quadrupled in the three months to September 30, warning of a race to cut costs as it struggles to stay in the air.
Net losses mushroomed to 646 million dollars, or 5.16 dollars a share, in the three months to September 30, compared to a year-earlier loss of 164 million dollars, or 1.36 dollars a share.
Stripping out one-off items, losses per share amounted to 4.73 dollars -- deeper than the loss of 4.26 dollars widely expected by analysts -- after a loss of 1.43 dollars a year earlier.
Sales rose 5.9 percent to 3.87 billion dollars.
"As Delta`s financial situation continues to deteriorate, time is of the essence," Delta chief executive Gerald Grinstein said in a statement.
On October 8, Delta announced a restructuring plan that would cut 6,000 to 7,000 jobs and slash costs by five billion dollars a year by 2006, while warning that bankruptcy remained "a real possibility."
Delta said it had 1.45 billion dollars in unrestricted cash as of September 30.
"A combination of record high fuel prices and the weak domestic yield environment has materially impacted our financial results," chief financial officer Michael Palumbo said.
"This further demonstrates the urgent need for us to achieve our targeted benefits through our transformation plan."
Delta said passenger revenues fell 3.7 percent in the quarter. Domestic passenger numbers were hit by four major hurricanes.
The load factor was 77.7 percent, up 1.0 percentage point from last year when the Iraq war hurt traffic.
Operating expenses for the September 2004 quarter surged 14.9 percent, mostly because of a 63.1-percent surge in fuel costs.
For the whole of 2004, Delta said it expected its fuel costs to exceed the prior year levels by 950 million dollars, with 820 million dollars of the increase driven by higher fuel prices.