Being the first airline to break the news regarding the results of their second quarter, the Delta Air Lines gave investors a shock when a revision about their airline capacity plans were told to be set to a higher level.  Even with their lucrative quarter, the shares of the Delta immediately fell during a 9% fourth-quarter accessible seat mile increase plan where analyst Hunter Keay of the Stifel Nicolaus Capital Markets described as an” unwelcome progress.” Afraid of their growth, however, became less since other airlines just want to maintain their modest progress and Keay made the 4th quarter growth of Delta into subject, noting it develops on a 4th quarter 2009 decrease “ the biggest within the big 5.”

Capacity discipline is still the key to sustain the airline industry, so even if the economy is still facing recovery, airlines think for additional new seats. William Greene, an analyst from Morgan Stanley expects growth in terms of capacity this 2010 from the nine biggest airlines by 1.1 percent.  Greene told, “The latest guidance for airplane capacity suggests that airline industry will boom more compared to the usual seasonality in the next coming months.”

This year’s 2nd half holds the first capacity growth by all major airlines in 3 years, as airlines extend 2009’s 2nd half supply.

There are rooms for growth, as shown by JetBlue’s idea to grow complete- year 2010 by 7% capacity and AirTran’s idea to grow complete-year by approximately 4 % capacity but having smaller footprints in comparison to legacy airlines would just make the growth very small. Meanwhile, Southwest Airlines, intend to continue the same capacity this year but wait for 2011 for their “humble“ growth.