Update On The Delta Airlines Refinery, Trainer, Pennsylvania, Outside Philadelphia

CNBC is reporting:

Sky-high fuel costs have made cost-cutting, not growing market share, the mantra for many airlines. One of Delta's riskier cost-cutting moves, buying an oil refinery, looks like it's starting to pay off.

Delta bought the refinery, which is in Trainer, Pa., just outside of Philadelphia, in 2012 for $150 million as a way to hedge against its biggest expense, jet fuel costs.

But after losing a combined $136 million in the previous nine months, the Trainer refinery turned a profit for the first time in the third quarter, bringing in $3 million.
As a result, the price Delta paid for a gallon of jet fuel dropped 5.4 percent to $2.97 during the quarter. Though its overall fuel costs increased 3 percent, which Delta attributed to an increase in flying capacity.

Delta has said the oil refinery purchase could save the airline as much as $300 million a year in fuel costs, which accounted for 32 percent of operating expenses in the third quarter.