Air France-KLM Posts Another Bad Loss

Air France-KLM has become the latest airline group to publish a large loss for the first quarter of 2024.

The group’s operating loss was 489 million euros higher than expected. According to the airline’s financial report, the loss was primarily due to one-off payments made to KLM staff.

In response to the loss, Air France-KLM joined Lufthansa Group in announcing plans to cut costs across the short term. While first quarters typically see companies underperform following a strong year-end, these losses have been abnormally high for airlines and associated groups.

First Quarter Results

Across the quarter, the Group said it saw capacity increase by 4.5% over the last year. Additionally, load factors remained incredibly solid at 86%, representing a 0.4 percentage point increase.

20.9 million passengers were welcomed across Air France-KLM services, representing a 6.2% rise above the first quarter in 2023. With a 4.5% capacity increase, traffic also grew 5%.

In a commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, the group said that by the end of March, 21% of the active fleet comprised next-generation aircraft. This jumped from the 17% recorded at the end of March 2023. The hope is that by 2030, this figure will be close to 80%.

Markets such as Latin America remained very strong with significant load factors even with capacity down around 2.4%. Meanwhile, capacity across Asia and the Middle East grew 31.8% thanks to the ongoing stability of these locations.

However, regions such as Africa will see drops thanks to what Air France-KLM describes as ongoing geopolitical issues that have affected the ability to offer a robust schedule.