ATLANTA (Reuters) — Delta Air Lines reported a fourth-quarter loss Tuesday that was larger than expected as lower travel demand depressed revenue.

But Delta, which acquired Northwest Airlines in 2008 to become the world’s largest airline, said demand for business travel was improving and that it expected revenue for available seat mile to grow in each month of 2010.

“We have seen tangible evidence of sequential demand improvement, which indicates the recovery has begun,” Delta’s president, Edward H. Bastian, said on a conference call. Delta said it lost $25 million, or 3 cents a share, in the quarter, an improvement from the loss of $1.44 billion, or $2.11 a share, a year earlier. Excluding merger costs and other items, the loss came to 27 cents a share. On that basis, analysts had expected a loss of 24 cents.

Revenue in the most recent quarter was $6.81 billion, a decline of 12 percent when compared with the two airlines’ combined results in the year-earlier quarter. Airlines have cut jobs and reduced capacity in the last two years in a bid to offset declining revenue as the recession battered business and consumer demand for air travel.

Delta said it expected moves such as baggage fee increases to aid revenue this year as it continues to contain costs. The company is paying down debt and reducing capital spending on new aircraft.

Shares of Delta, which is based in Atlanta, fell 16 cents, to close at $13.17.

Source :- http://www.nytimes.com