It's interesting to see how wx affects the operation as a whole.
Mother Nature always wins...
except that you misread.
DL's results are affected because there is capacity that flew this year that didn't last year because of the WORSE weather last year.
and spring break or lack thereof has nothing to do with why the results are down.
As I have repeatedly noted, the problem is on the int'l system and is driven by the stronger dollar relative to major currencies such as the Euro and currencies of Latin America.
Int'l traffic for US airlines in the US winter is heavily INBOUND to the US and is thus sold in foreign currencies. A strong dollar means that US airlines gets LESS money for each ticket.
IN the summer, US travel is much more heavily US outbound and priced in dollars which means that US results are strengthened by better travel values for Americans.
Many travel writers have noted that 2015 will likely be the best year for Americans to travel abroad in decades.
Not surprisingly, DL has repeatedly upgraded equipment or added frequencies to major European destinations to take advantage of the stronger US travel demand this summer.
so, the winter int'l RASM decrease will fairly quickly swing to greater strength going into the summer.
Not also that DL noted that domestic travel is and has been strong for DL. we will see when other carriers report their RASM by region - and that might not come until mid-April when the 1st quarter closes - but DL has lead the US industry in domestic RASM growth - thanks in part to WN's retreat from ATL, DL's growing strength in highly competitive markets like NYC and LAX, and in having the highest market share in all of its hubs of the big 3 which translates into greater pricing power.
now, compound this revenue news with the fuel article which I posted earlier, and the expectations are again that DL will offset a significant portion of its hedge losses with refinery gains.
DL is also adding more capacity than any other of the big 4 US airlines which means that DL's capacity increase combined with the RASM decline this month - and perhaps for the quarter - still results in higher total revenue.
other carriers are not growing their capacity enough to offset their RASM declines.
don't sell your stock, meto.
and don't listen to the naysayers here who continue to fail to understand the real dynamics that are affecting the industry.
and it will likely be the middle of next week before AA and UA can even figure out how many people they put on airplanes in Feb - or be willing to admit their results.