Delta Flags off Honolulu Flight from Minneapolis-St. Paul

Delta Air Lines (DAL) plans to initiate seasonal flights from Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport to Honolulu International Airport starting Oct 25, 2015 through Mar 26, 2016.

Delta will use The Boeing Co.’s (BA) wide bodied 767-300ER aircraft to serve busy travel periods. It will be a 225-seat passenger aircraft with 25 full flat-bed seats in BusinessElite, along with 29 regular ones in Economy Comfort and 171 in the Economy class.

On the entertainment front, Delta has arranged for a wide range of movies, TV shows and music for its passengers.

Meanwhile, the flights connect travelers with popular holiday destinations along with offering various other travel options. With the inclusion of Honolulu, Delta will run 20 peak-day departures from the U.S. and Japan to four Hawaiian destinations, thus allowing the premier passenger carrier to fortify its position in the region.

Recently, Delta reported growth in traffic for the month of Nov 2014 with revenue passenger miles or RPMs increasing 5% annually. Passenger revenue per available seat mile (PRASM) improved 5.5% year over year. Meanwhile, consolidated capacity (or available seat miles/ASMs) for the month, increased 3.6% from Nov 2013 to 18.4 billion.

The operating performance of Delta is expected to improve further with the holiday season just around the corner when air travels tend to increase substantially.

Delta currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Better-ranked stocks in the airline space include American Airlines Group Inc. (AAL) and Spirit Airlines (SAVE). Both these sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).