Delta Air Lines made another plea for pushing through a $1 billion cost-savings plan today as it reported a huge loss from operations.
Delta's net loss widened to $646 million, or $5.16 per share, compared with $164 million or $1.36 per share in the third quarter of 2003.
Delta reported $3.87 billion in revenue, up from $3.66 billion in revenue in the third quarter of 2003.
The results moved the Atlanta based airline closer to bankruptcy as the company confirmed it held just $1.45 billion in cash as of September 30th, a critically low level.
The average analyst estimate was for a loss of $4.38 per share from $3.83 billion in revenue.
September's load factor was 77.7 percent, an increase of one percentage from September 2003.
Shares of Delta lost 12 cents yesterday to close at $2.99.