DALLAS
The price of air travel is poised to rise again, with airlines seeing beyond recent fare wars that have cut into their profits.
Delta Air Lines third-quarter profit fell more than 6 per cent to $1.18 billion, partly because Hurricane Irma robbed the company of $140 million in revenue from cancelled flights.
The hurricane’s impact was already known, however, so investors are more likely to seize on Delta’s prediction Wednesday that revenue for each seat flown one mile — a closely watched measure of pricing power in the airline business — will rise by up to 4 per cent over last year during the fourth quarter.
That forecast comes a day after American Airlines and United Airlines reported that the same key revenue figure would be better than expected in the third quarter, which ended Sept. 30.
US airline stocks tumbled during July and August over concern that overly rapid expansion and fare wars — primarily between United and budget carrier Spirit Airlines at several big airports — were hurting profits.
Those fears now appear to be overblown.
