Delta Air Lines' (DAL) Traffic Nudges Up

Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL) announced traffic for February increased slightly by 1.4 percent, but fast expansion at the company still increased the number of empty seats.

That could be the reason Delta downwardly revised it capacity for 2011 recently, although they still see growth for the year, but not at the levels they originally thought.

Domestic traffic dropped 0.2 percent in February, while international traffic jumped 4 percent. The main Delta brand saw traffic increase 1.5 percent, but miles flown on regional affiliates such as Delta Express, which don't fly internationally, fell 6.4 percent.

The number of miles flown by paying customes was up from February 2010, reaching 12.66 billion miles; an increase from 12.49 billion.

The increase in Delta's traffic was offset by too many additional seats for sale. Capacity jumped 6.1 percent, to 17.19 billion available seat miles. A seat mile is one seat flown one mile. Airlines can add capacity by increaing the number of flights, using larger aircraft or flying longer distances.

Capacity on international flights grew by 12.5 percent, as that is where the higher demand is for Delta at this time.

Delta closed Thursday at $10.26, up $0.11, or 1.08 percent.