Delta Air chases investment grade ranking with a contrarian strategy that is not without its risks

After reaching a point during 2013 when it could finally issue some return to shareholders for the first time in roughly a decade, Delta Air Lines is now starting to benchmark itself against other industrial transportation companies alongside its airline industry peers.

In a broad sense Delta's new benchmarking mechanisms are the culmination of nearly a decade's worth of work to clean up its balance sheet and develop a strict policy of ensuring every expenditure meets its return on invested capital targets.

The result of those efforts is a prediction by Delta that 2014 will mark the carrier's second year of profitability of more than USD2 billion, and its fifth year of profits in excess of USD1 billion. Obviously Delta has some road ahead in achieving it stated goal of reaching and sustaining investment grade, but it is encouraging it has reached a point where it can outline a seemingly realistic plan of reaching those targets.

Delta's contrarian strategy, in ageing fleet, no growth and business diversification raises longer term questions, but for now the noises are mostly positive.