VALDOSTA — In the very month of May, when Delta Airlines cut one of three daily flights to Atlanta from service to the Valdosta Regional Airport, load factors on the remaining two flights rose to 91 percent — the highest rate in more than a year.

That means that 44 or 45 of the 50 seats available on the commuter jets flown from Atlanta to Valdosta and back by Atlantic Southeast Airlines (ASA) have been booked by passengers on each of the two daily flights during May.

Interim Airport Manager Patti Clark said Thursday that Delta’s route planner in Atlanta confirmed that May was the first month in many that delivered a profitable margin for the Valdosta flights.

ASA contracts with Delta to provide smaller market airports like Valdosta local commercial service. In May, Delta, through ASA, removed one of three daily flights to Valdosta because load factors were not meeting profitability margins.

And with the ever-rising cost of fuel, that margin increases each time the price of gas goes up, Clark said.

“In April, we had to have an 82 percent load factor for the airline to break even on operations costs,” she said. “And the price of fuel has gone up since then.”

Valdosta’s load factor in April was 79 percent, not enough to reach a profitable margin for Delta, Clark noted.

Those 50 seater jets can hold a full tank of 2,100 to 2,200 gallons of jet fuel. Though the jets don’t require that much to make the 45 minute flight from Atlanta to Valdosta and return 45-minute flight to Atlanta, it’s costing all the airlines in the Southeast an average of $5.70 a gallon — or approximately $12,000 — to fill up one commuter jet, Clark said.

Valdosta has had good load factor ratios averaging between high 60 percent to low 70 percent ratios over the past few years, but as the area has grown, load factors have risen.

In 2008, load factors for the three daily flights (before that was reduced to two in May) averaged 67 percent in January, 73 percent in February, 80 percent in March, the 79 percent in April, and the record breaking 91 percent in May.

The last highest load factor that came anywhere close to May’s 91 percent was recorded in September 2007, when it reached 82.6 percent, Clark noted.

Delta has committed to returning the third daily flight to Valdosta on July 7, after some successful lobbying efforts by Clark and Valdosta — Lowndes Regional Airport Authority Chairman Joe Prater helped convince the airline’s bean counters that Valdostans will support and needs three flights.

That flight will depart Atlanta at 10 a.m., arrive at Valdosta at 11:14 a.m., and depart for Atlanta at 11:39 a.m. It will serve the airport on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Whether Delta can keep its promise to add a third flight on Sundays is yet to be seen due to the ongoing fuel cost crisis.

“Airlines typically review their operations costs and current flying schedules in September, after the busier summer months end and leisure travelers get back to work and school,” Clark said. “Delta has said they may cut 3 percent of their flights in September. How that will affect us is yet to be seen. With more and more Moody AFB personnel needing that Sunday flight to get to training assignments that begin on Mondays, we may be able to keep the third flight on Sunday. We’ll see. Nothing is guaranteed.”

Reviewing past data on load factors, the 11:14 a.m. Valdosta flight showed the lowest load factors of the three flights, so it’s obvious why Delta cut that particular flight, Clark said.