The US Thanksgiving holiday shifted the highest revenue day of the year from December back into November, according to Delta Air Lines.
Virgin Atlantic’s US partner carried more than 2.6 million passengers on over 28,000 flights over the Thanksgiving holiday.
November saw the airline’s passenger revenue rise by 4.5% year-on-year, driven by a strong US domestic performance, particularly at its Atlanta and Seattle hubs.
Delta’s overall carryings rose by 5.9% in the month to more than 13.2 million passengers, although international load factors slipped from 80.6% to 78.1%. Domestic load factors rose by 3.4 percentage points to 82.1%.
Passenger numbers in the year to November were up by 4.2% to 157 million.
Meanwhile, Delta is to run a daily seasonal service between Minneapolis-St Paul and Honolulu between October 25, 2015 and March 26, 2016.