BTW, whatever metaphor you want to use or whatever the source of it, DL absolutely is hitting on all cylinders", nailing it, or everyone has their backpacks based on their just-released traffic report for May.
RASM is up a hefty 7% on system capacity that is up 3.6% which implies revenue for the month was up close to 10%, a very healthy number for an established airline.
expected fuel price is down from previous quarters, Delta Connection capacity is down by 5%, mainline domestic and int'l capacity are both up by 3.6% driven by 25% increases in capacity in Latin America, and system load factor is up by almost 2%.
DL noted that revenue was particularly strong in ATL, NYC, and SEA which says that DL's home and largest hub combined with its two largest developmental hubs are both delivering very solid results which fuel further growth.
Cargo traffic was also up after several months of reduced cargo traffic due to weak yields.
mainline completion factor was a very strong 99.9%.
DL's summer ramp up of new service has begun with the new SEA domestic service including to JNU, FAI, and ANC plus new service to ICN already operating.
with several summer months of that kind of financial performance, DL should be very well positioned to hit $4B in profits for the year... and DL employee profit sharing should easily soar well past the $500M earned last year.