Back to top

Image: Shutterstock

Delta (DAL) Set to Increase July Capacity by 1000 Flights

Read MoreHide Full Article

With countries across the globe relaxing travel restrictions, Delta Air Lines Inc. (DAL - Free Report) plans to increase capacity for the busy summer travel period, adding nearly 1000 flights in July.

The carrier will be adding capacity to Florida as well as throughout the West Coast. It will also add transcontinental flights for business travelers.

Thanks to lifting of border restrictions and increase in demand for leisure travel, Delta will resume some Latin American flights. It will mainly focus on adding capacity to popular destinations close to the United States, such as the gateways to Cancun and markets like Los Cabos, Montego Bay, Nassau, St. Thomas and Punta Cana.


The carrier also expects to re-start the service connecting Atlanta with Sao Paulo. Additionally, it will resume some of the routes suspended in Central America and the Caribbean.

Upon lifting of border restrictions, the Atlanta, GA-based airline will resume its four-time weekly service from New York-JFK to Lisbon and daily service from JFK to Athens. It will add a four-time weekly flight connecting Boston with Amsterdam and a daily service between Seattle and Amsterdam. Moreover, the carrier will resume the service between Detroit and Paris-Charles De Gaulle.

In Africa, the airline will restart service from New York-JFK to Accra and that from Atlanta to Lagos, subject to government approval.

As for trans-Pacific capacity expansion, Delta will bring back weekly service from Los Angeles to Sydney. The carrier will also resume weekly service between Atlanta and Seoul-Incheon. Additionally, the airline expects to operate flights to Shanghai (via Incheon) up to seven times in a week, upon government approval.

Despite the increase in capacity, Delta’s July schedule is expected to be down approximately 70% from the year-ago period.  In order to encourage customers to fly, the carrier is providing extra space so that social distancing can be maintained among passengers. In this regard, the airline is capping seating at the main cabin to 60% and to 50% in first class. It is also blocking middle seats through Sep 30, 2020. For tickets purchased through Jun 30, 2020, customers also have the benefit to change travel plans without being charged extra for a year.

Zacks Rank & Key Picks

Delta carries a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell).

Some better-ranked stocks in the broader Transportation sector are Scorpio Tankers Inc. (STNG - Free Report) , Teekay Tankers Ltd. (TNK - Free Report) and Frontline Ltd (FRO - Free Report) . While Frontline sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), Scorpio Tankers and Teekay Tankers carry a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Scorpio Tankers’ current-year earnings has been revised upward in excess of 100% in the past 60 days.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Teekay Tanker’s current-year earnings has been revised 35.6% upward in the past 60 days.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Frontline’s current-year earnings has been revised 17.1% upward in the past 60 days.

Just Released: Zacks’ 7 Best Stocks for Today

Experts extracted 7 stocks from the list of 220 Zacks Rank #1 Strong Buys that has beaten the market more than 2X over with a stunning average gain of +24.1% per year.

These 7 were selected because of their superior potential for immediate breakout.

See these time-sensitive tickers now >>

Published in