Delta Air

Delta Air Lines Inc. said Friday that systemwide traffic and capacity decreased in September compared with the same month a year ago.

The Atlanta-based carrier said it flew 9.71 billion revenue passenger miles last month, a 0.8 percent decline from 9.79 billion a year earlier.

A revenue passenger mile is a widely watched industry measurement accounting for one paying passenger flown one mile.

Available seat miles, or capacity, fell 3.7 percent to 12.14 billion from 12.61 billion a year earlier.
Load factor, or occupancy, rose 2.4 percentage points to 80 percent from 77.6 percent.

For the first nine months of the year, Delta recorded systemwide traffic of 94.46 billion revenue passenger miles, compared to 92.83 billion a year earlier. Available seat miles rose to 115.2 billion from 114.35 billion. Year-to-date load factor was 82 percent, compared with 81.2 percent a year earlier.

Shares of Delta Air Lines slipped 36 cents, or 4.6 percent, to $7.55 in afternoon trading