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Delta Air Lines said Hurricane Irma caused it to cancel 2,200 flights — and took a US$120m toll on its financial results. Delta said its thousands of Irma-related flight cancellations occurred Sept. 7-12 in Florida, the Caribbean and Georgia, including at its hub in Atlanta. The company disclosed the impact of Irma while reporting its results for the month of September. During the hurricane, Delta suspended fees for checked bags and pets in the cabin for passengers flying to and from affected areas, and along with other airlines capped fares for flights to and from affected areas, and waived change fees for affected passengers. The $120m impact amounts to about 1 percentage point of operating profit margin. In the month of September, Delta had a mainline cancellation rate of more than 2%, compared with 0.1% a year earlier. <br/>

Kenya Airways intends to increase its Boeing 787 fleet in order to enjoy the economies of scale as it eyes the US route. KQ management announced that it was opting for fuel hedging as part of its turnaround measures. The airliner also plans to withdraw from two routes -- Hong Kong and Hanoi in Vietnam -- from Oct 29, allowing it to deploy the aircraft to the US and African routes. CE Sebastian Mikosz said the airline was going back to fuel hedging having formed a committee. The airline has been exiting fuel hedging which was a key source of its losses in the recent past following a sharp drop of global oil prices beginning mid-2014. As at the end of March this year KQ did not have fuel hedging contracts in place. Mikosz was brought on board to turn around the ailing airline which reported a loss of US$101.2bm as at the end of March. <br/>