Swine flu Costs Delta $250M in Q2 Revenue

Delta Air Lines Inc. (DAL - Snapshot Report) said today that the H1N1 virus, which caused a sharp decline in travel demand, dented its second-quarter revenue by $250 million.

The news sent shares down by more than 4%.

Earlier this month, Delta had expected a hit of $125 million to $150 million in second-quarter revenue.

The carrier had significantly reduced capacity in Mexico and Latin America due to the virus, which was originally known as the swine flu. It also shed capacity in Asia.

Currently, the consensus' loss estimate for the full year stands at 13 cents per share, wider by 10 cents in the past week as 1 analyst out of 7 pulled back on expectations. A month ago, the consensus was calling for a profit of 59 cents per share, but 6 out of 7 analysts have revised lower since that time.

This Zacks #3 Rank ("Hold") is moving on unusually low volume of 2.1 million shares, compared with the daily average of 14 million.