Delta Airlines blames poor weather for $45m profit slump

Delta Airlines has reported a 2.4% increase in traffic for December 2010 as compared to December 2009 on a 3.9 percent increase in capacity.

The airline also revealed that load factor fell 1.1 points to 80.1%.

Domestic traffic increased 0.5% year over year on a 1.2% increase in capacity while the airline's domestic load factor went down 0.6 points to 79.6%.

International traffic climbed 5.3% year over year on an 8.1% rise in capacity, and load factor decreased 2.1 points to 80.7%.

"December's severe winter weather throughout the United States and Western Europe reduced Delta's net profit for the fourth quarter by about $45mn from our previous expectations," said Ed Bastian, Delta's president.