High fuel costs dragged Delta Air Lines to a $318 million first-quarter net loss

, worse than the $256 million loss recorded a year earlier. "Fuel is the biggest challenge facing this industry, and Delta is actively reducing capacity, implementing fare actions, hedging our fuel needs and attacking our cost structure in order to offset fuel's impact on our earnings," according to a statement by CEO Richard Anderson. The carrier's total quarterly passenger revenue jumped 11 percent year over year to nearly $6.6 billion, due in part to a 12 percent improvement in passenger yield and 1 percent increase in total traffic.