Impressive results for KLM and Air France

KLM is pleased with its latest results that showed its traffic figures improved in June, with 4.7% more passengers boarding its flights than in June last year. With traffic up 2.2% in RPK and capacity up slightly by 0.8% in ASK, our load factor rose 1.3% pts to 91.7%, compared to June 2018. The increase in passenger traffic was highest on routes to destinations in Europe and North Africa.

"In June, growth in passenger traffic exceeded a slight increase in capacity, resulting in higher load factor. Our cargo capacity was down 0.6%, but traffic was down further (-2.7%). For the past 1.5 years, there has been almost no room for growth at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol. Passenger capacity (in ASKs) increased by only 0.5% during the first half of 2019. The growth in RPKs was identical at 0.5%. With more passengers opting for our European services, traffic was up 2.2% during the first six months of the year." Said, Pieter Elbers - KLM president-director.

Air France-KLM and Accor announce new enhanced loyalty programme partnership with more rewards for their joint customers

From 20th June 2019, members of the Flying Blue and Le Club AccorHotels loyalty programmes will be able to enjoy Miles+Points, an innovative opportunity to earn simultaneously points & miles while travelling with both companies:

Earn Miles for your hotel stay and Points for each flight
Convert Miles and Reward Points for even more ways to redeem

Accor Group and the Air France-KLM Group are strengthening their existing partnership by offering, for the first time in the European travel industry a dual reward scheme to their entire global loyalty customer base.

Every time our customers travel on a flight marketed and operated by Air France and/or KLM, or stay a night at an Accor hotel, they will now simultaneously earn both Flying Blue Miles and Le Club AccorHotels Reward points.

Air France - KLM sustainability report 2018

Image KLM

The Air France - KLM Sustainability report 2018 was published on Friday 31st May which detailed everything about the developments and results in the field of sustainability of KLM and Air France over the past year.

Some of the key highlights for KLM have included serving 9.4 million sustainable sandwiches, purchasing 1,318 tonnes of sustainable biofuel, 18% reduction in CO2 emissions from ground processes and producing 9% less waste in the year.

Air France - KLM April results

The Air France - KLM Group released its latest figures this week for the month of April which saw the group's number of passengers increase by 9.2%

Photo KLM

KLM's traffic figures for the month of April reflect a slight increase. KLM welcomed 1.8% more passengers on board in April compared to the same month last year. Passenger load factor remained largely stable in comparison with the same month last year against a marginal traffic increase of 1.2% (expressed in revenue passenger kilometres or RPKs), coupled with marginally increased capacity of 1.2% (expressed in available seat kilometres or ASKs). Passenger growth was especially visible on routes to our destinations in Asia.

"Following a decline in traffic figures during the first quarter, we saw an increase in April, boosted in part by good operational performance. The increase, however, is not as much as we would have liked." Said, Pieter Elbers - KLM President & CEO

Air France - KLM first quarter results

Air France - KLM has released its latest results for the first quarter of 2019, a particularly challenging time for the European aviation industry. The group has in essence performed well during the period and reduced its debts by €403 million, now it only owes €5.8 billion.

Benjamin Smith, Air France-KLM Group CEO said: “As anticipated, the first quarter has been challenging for the European airline industry including the Air France-KLM Group, as substantial industry capacity growth in the off-peak business period led to unit revenue pressure. In this context, the Group achieved further improvement in unit cost while reaping the benefits of its efforts to strengthen its positioning, as evidenced by the first signs of progress in operational performance at Air France, notably in term of “Net Promoter Score” and punctuality. These elements, together with a more benign industry supply outlook for the summer, lead us to expect improving trends in the rest of the year and to confirm our full-year guidance. We aim to have a capital market day planned in November 2019 to further outline the Group strategic directions.”

Air France - KLM results for March

Photo Air France - KLM

The latest results from the Air France - KLM group show a slight drop in passenger numbers during March, with Air France outperforming KLM. 

 Traffic highlights

Passenger network activity (Air France and KLM)	Capacity (ASK, %ch.)	Traffic (RPK, %ch.)	Load Factor  (%)	Change (pts)
Long-haul	+ 2.7%	+ 1.7%	87.6%	- 0.9
North America	+ 6.3%	+ 4.7%	89.1%	- 1.3
Latin America	+ 10.4%	+ 7.3%	87.1%	- 2.5
Asia	+ 2.0%	+ 0.9%	89.5%	- 1.0
Africa / Middle East	- 3.6%	- 3.7%	80.4%	- 0.1
Caribbean / Indian Ocean	- 2.9%	- 2.3%	90.4%	+ 0.5
Short and Medium-haul	+ 0.9%	+ 2.9%	84.3%	+ 1.6
Total	+ 2.4%	+ 1.9%	87.0%	- 0.4

• 7.1 million passengers, +2.7%

Transavia activity	Capacity (ASK, %ch.)	Traffic (RPK, %ch.)	Load Factor  (%)	Change (pts)
Total	+ 11.3%	+ 12.0%	94.2%	+ 0.6

• 1.2 million passengers, +8.4%

Total group passenger activity (Air France, KLM and Transavia)	Capacity (ASK, %ch.)	Traffic (RPK, %ch.)	Load Factor  (%)	Change (pts)
Total	+ 3.1%	+ 2.8%	87.6%	- 0.3

• 8.3 million passengers, +3.4%

Cargo activity	Capacity (ATK, %ch.)	Traffic (RTK, %ch.)	Load Factor  (%)	Change (pts)
Total	+ 2.2%	+ 1.5%	62.2%	- 0.4

Air France - KLM February results

The Air France - KLM group has released its latest figures for the month of February

Air France - KLM full year 2018 results

The Air France - KLM group has released its 2018 full-year today which demonstrates how the group still managed to achieve a strong performance despite higher fuel costs and strike action.  In total, more than 100 million passengers flew on the group's airlines during 2018, leading to revenue increases across the board. However, it is clear that once again the groups' survival is thanks mainly to the continued good operations of Transavia and KLM.

The operating result of € 1,332 million was, according to the group, thanks in part to strong commercial performance, cost control and streamlining.  2018 also saw further reductions in the Groups net debt, down €195 million to €6.2 billion. 

In the latest results. the group said it will continue to work on yield improvement within the context of an anticipated fuel bill increase. 

Based on the current data for the Passenger network:

Long-haul forward booking load factors from February to April are on average stable compared to last year, and positively oriented for the early summer,
Passenger unit revenues at constant currency expected below last year for the first quarter 2019 partly due to the Easter shift,
Unit cost (CASK) reduction between -1% and 0% at constant currency and fuel price,
Net debt/EBITDA ratio below 1.5x.
The Board of Directors of Air France-KLM, chaired by Anne-Marie Couderc, met on 19 February 2019 to approve the financial statements for the Full Year 2018.

Air France - KLM january results

Air France - KLM released its results for January recently which showed the group carried 1.5% more passengers in January 2019 that it took for a ride during 2018's January. 

Digital innovations from Air France

European airline Air France has made an update to its latest digital innovations, with a range of solutions including the Air France app, a hold baggage tracking system and the biometric boarding pass, the company is constantly improving every aspect of the customer journey, to ensure a simpler, streamlined and personalized travel experience. 

With close to 6.6 million downloads, the Air France app is evolving constantly and offers new features to assist customers, help them personalize their trip and save time.

They can discover these digital innovations at the different stages of their trip -

Additional payment methods - Google Pay and Apple Pay are the latest additions to the classic, secure payment methods available when purchasing your ticket.
Faster check-in – entering your passport details in a single click is now easier than ever before. Simply click on the “Scan passport” pictogram, then place the passport in the specified field.  All data is automatically updated.
Real-time airport access indications with geo-localization – irrespective of the customer’s location, they can easily plan their commute time to the airport thanks to a multi-transport itinerary (car, public transport, etc.) in real-time.
A guided airport tour through to the boarding gate – a map is automatically offered to the customer indicating how to get to their boarding gate, making it easier for them to find their way around the airport.
Real-time baggage tracking – each customer receives a notification informing them of the whereabouts of their baggage throughout their trip and the number of the carousel where they can collect their baggage on arrival.
The Air France Play app is also enhanced with new entertainment options. Customers can enjoy more than 160 French and international press publications, more than 50 videos to watch during their flight (films, TV programmes, cartoons, documentaries, etc.) and a selection of music playlists.

Air France - KLM carried over 7.7 million people in December 2018.

Despite strike action, air traffic control issues and weather conditions, Air France-KLM still managed to transport an amazing 100 million passengers during 2018, of which some 7.7 million flew in December alone. 

KLM continued to outperform Air France and saw an increase of 4.5% in the number of passengers it carried during 2018 compared to 2017. In total KLM welcomed a record 34.2 million passengers on its flights during the whole of 2018.  In December passenger numbers were up by over 7% year on year, whereas Air France saw a slight drop in December traffic.

The strong passenger growth resulted in a record load factor of 89.1% for the entire year for KLM, which is 0.7%pt higher than in 2017.  Air France saw a 0.5% rise in the overall load factor for the year to 86.2%, yet December the carrier saw it slip to 84.4%

Transavia performed incredibly well, seeing double-digit increases in its December traffic and year on year revenue, with load factor up ever so slightly for the year as a whole to an amazing 92%. The results for the airline are impressive when considering the company closed its Munich base.

"In 2018, we expanded our worldwide network to a total of 166 with four new destinations. Last year, the KLM Group (including Transavia Netherlands) welcomed 43 million passengers on board. It’s a great achievement that all of us at KLM, as a whole, can be proud of.” said Pieter Elbers, President and CEO, KLM.

Air France KLM group November results better than expected

Photo KLM

Around this time in each month, the major airlines of the world reveal how well they performed in the preceding month, the Air France KLM group has done just that and its November 2018 results make interesting reading. 

Many in the industry had expected the group to report reductions in both loads and revenues #, however, across the network, the group saw passenger numbers rise, as did the network, while load factors remained fairly constant. 

KLM performed very well, it carried 3% more passengers on board in November compared to the same month last year. With traffic up by 3.5% measured in revenue passenger kilometres (RPKs) and increased capacity of 2% measured in available seat kilometres (ASKs), passenger load factor rose by 1.2% points to 87.7%.   "The favourable trend in KLM’s traffic figures continued through to the second month of the fourth quarter as well. Including the month of November, KLM has welcomed a total of 31.5 million passengers on board during the past eleven months. We are already well on our way to our goal: 34 million KLM passengers in 2018." Said Pieter Elbers - KLM President & CEO.

The same trend was visible at Transavia where increased traffic measured in RPKs exceeded additional capacity, consequently boosting passenger load factor. Cargo load factor came under pressure last month at KLM Cargo as a result of a steep decline in traffic volumes (-2.3% RFTKs) in relation to capacity (-1.3% AFTKs). Consequently, cargo load factor declined by 0.8% points to 70%.

Air France staff win 4% pay rise......

In a major concession to staff, the board of Air France have signed an agreement with the main French unions CFDT, CFE-CGC/UNAC, FO/SNPNC, SPAF and UNSA aérien Air France (Who combined represent over 76% of Air France staff) regarding staff compensation. 

The key provisions of the agreement include a general pay increase of 2%, retroactive to January 1, 2018, and a general pay increase of 2% on January 1, 2019. A major step forward in the ongoing unsettled relations between staff and the airline that has cost the carrier millions in lost revenue over recent times.

The next round of annual salary negotiations (NAO) will begin between the company and the representative unions in October 2019. These discussions will be based on the global economic environment, the present situation of the Air France-KLM Group, as well as the company's economic performance.

"I would like to thank everyone involved at Air France for the quality of our discussions over the past few weeks, and for the trust that has prevailed throughout," said Benjamin Smith, CEO of Air France-KLM and Air France. "This way of working between all parties provides Air France and the Air France-KLM Group with a new perspective going forward, and it is my hope that it will ensure the future success of our airlines."

Air France - KLM September results

The Air France KLM group released its September results this week, which showed the group increased the number of passengers it carried by some 2.7% during September, whilst overall the load factor remained pretty stable.

KLM continued to see modest improvements in both revenue and the number of passengers it took for a ride during last month according to the latest figures,. These also showed that year to date the Royal Dutch Airline is over % up on 2017 results.

September saw the passenger load factor drop slightly to 89.7% (-0.4%pts). This was due to higher capacity in available seat kilometres (+2.0% ASKs) compared to lower traffic growth in revenue passenger kilometres (+1.5% RPKs).

This slight drop had a number of causes combined with a fall in load factor in Europe. There was robust growth in passenger traffic on North and South American routes, while capacity and traffic to African and Asian destinations decreased.

The load factor for KLM Cargo rose to 66.4% (+1.3%pts), because capacity decreased (-4.3% ATKs) more than traffic (-2.4% RTKs).

At Transavia, while capacity remained more or less the same, traffic grew somewhat, resulting in a higher load factor.

New boss of Air France - KLM will be based at Air France at first with a mission to cut the costs and the government isn't selling its stake.

Benjamin Smith, the new CEO of the Air France-KLM group will go straight to troubled Air France for a transitional period the group confirmed this week.

According to the statement, Smith will stay at Air France until at least 31st December where he will cut the airline in half in an effort to reduce the costs that have had a negative effect on the bottom line of the company. 

Smith is already turning out to be a controversial choice as leader of the group, already he's attacked the French unions representing some of the staff at Air France, warning them that the French Government was willing to sell off its 14% stake in the airline and would not bale out the carrier. 

However, the French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire says France has no plans at this time to sell the holding in the airline, further, he warned Smith should focus on increasing competitiveness of the airline. “Today the priority is to turn around Air France,” Mr Le Maire told French media, “Selling off the state’s stake in Air France is not part of Benjamin Smith’s action plan. It is not an option on the table today.” 

Air France - KLM release August figures

The Air France - KLM group released its figures for August this week and despite the recent industrial action by staff, passenger numbers continued to grow, up by 2.3% to 9.6 million people. Load factor for the group was also up slightly to 90.8%. The biggest increases in passenger numbers were seen in the Latin America and North America markets for the group. 

New Air France-KLM ceo meets French minister

The newly named CEO of Air France-KLM, Ben Smith has held crisis talks with the French Transport Minister Elisabeth Borne as unions prepare to decide on further strike action over pay and conditions. 

A French government spokesperson confirmed that Mr Smith met the Minister on Tuesday for a “a first discussion of the main issues” that affect the Air France-KLM group. It is not known if union anger over Smiths new €3.25 million ($3.72 million) salary and other perks was one of the subjects discussed.

This is a long time before Mr Smith is due to take up the role in September and some aviation analysts in France say the government making public that a meeting had taken place was a blatant attempt dissuade the unions from taking action until Smith takes up his role during the next month.

Air France-KLM shares down as Ben Smith named as new CEO

As expected by the recent announcement that Benjamin Smith has been appointed as the new CEO of Air France-KLM, has angered unions are accusing the group of handing control to a foreigner and not protecting Air France’s interests.  Shares in the big European airline group shares fell on Friday and are expected to fall further next week. Also, having a negative impact on the stock market is news that KLM's Dutch pilots are threatening to strike over working conditions. 

Air France-KLM shares fell some 4 percent during early trading and were among the worst-performing stocks on the Paris SBF120 index. Leading analysts say the fall is directly attributed to the unhappiness of the unions over the appointment of Ben Smith.

Benjamin Smith resigns from Air Canada to become ceo of Air France-KLM

Earlier today, Air Canada announced that Benjamin Smith, President, Airlines and Chief Operating Officer, has told the carrier he will resign his position to take effect at the end of this month.

Air Canada say that Ben is to accept a role as the chief executive officer at a 'European-based global airline', although it stopped short of naming it.  "We wish Ben well in his future endeavours and congratulate him on his appointment. On behalf of our Board of Directors, our executive team and our 30,000 employees, I thank Ben for his significant contributions in many various roles at Air Canada over the past two decades," said Calin Rovinescu, President and Chief Executive Officer of Air Canada.   

Air France - KLM group releases July figures

The Air France - KLM group released its July results this week which showed as a whole 8.1 million passengers travelled with the group during July 2018, an increase of 1.5 percent over the same month last year.  The average load factor was  0.1 percent higher than 2017 to 90.1 percent, while the groups capacity increased by 1.4 percent.  The group had hoped to see bigger increases, however, growth was hampered by temporary rostering changes caused by pilot training backlogs following the recent strikes. 

KLM carried over 3 million passengers during the month but following a period of uninterrupted growth, load factor saw a slight drop for the first time in five months to 91.3 percent (-0.3 percent from last year). The decrease is the result of greater capacity in seat kilometres compared to traffic growth in passenger kilometres. The drop in load factor was most visible to North, Central, and South American destinations.

"The growth in traffic figures continued in July. Passenger numbers were well in excess of three million during this busy holiday month. The fact that we were able to welcome so many passengers on board is a great achievement on the part of the KLM staff, certainly in the face of rising summer temperatures." Said Pieter Elbers - KLM President & CEO.