Comair strike hurt airline

Friday, July 6, 2001 | 11 a.m.

ATLANTA -- The now-ended Comair pilot strike dragged down Delta Air Lines's traffic in June, the Atlanta-based airline said.

Delta, Comair's parent, boarded 9.7 million passengers in June, down 12.5 percent from June 2000.

The airline blamed the June numbers on a continued weakness in business travel and the Comair pilot strike, which kept the Cincinnati-based Delta Connection carrier grounded the entire month.

Other measures of airline capacity also dropped in June for Delta. For example, its "revenue passenger miles," or number of miles flown by paying passengers, totalled 9.9 billion in June, down 8.2 percent from June 2000.

Delta wasn't alone in reporting weak June numbers this week. United Airlines, American, Northwest, Continental, USAirways and Southwest all reported lower load factors for June.

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