Traffic drops at Air France as slump hits
AIR FRANCE-KLM, Europe’s biggest airline, yesterday said its traffic for September fell 3.7 per cent year-on-year, and reported continued pressure on revenues.
But the Franco-Dutch carrier said it had boosted its load factor, a measure of how full its planes are.
The airline carried 6.2m passengers in September, down 5.3 per cent on 2008, while traffic adjusted for the distance flown by each passenger – the industry’s standard way of measuring activity – fell 3.7 per cent.
It also reduced the number of seats on sale by 4.9 per cent, lifting the passenger load factor – or proportion of seats sold – by 1.1 percentage points to 81.9 per cent.
“Market conditions are similar to those prevailing before the summer and unit revenues remain under pressure,” Air France-KLM said.
Cargo traffic, which is seen as a barometer of international trade, fell 17.2 per cent.
The proportion of available space filled rose 2.2 percentage points to 66.1 per cent.
Several carriers have reported traffic starting to level out this week, but there are still worries facing the industry.
Fuel prices, which airlines hedge in advance to get the best deals, are set to rise, and industry group IATA says most airlines face continued deep losses.
Singapore Airlines and Air New Zealand put out signs of improving demand earlier this week, but cautioned a sustained recovery in the battered air travel market was still far from certain.
Meanwhile, British Airways (BA) said on Monday it carried 0.8 per cent fewer passengers in September compared with the same month a year ago, although its load factor rose.
In Europe, Air France-KLMcarried 835m passengers, down 3.8 per cent from the 868m carried last year.
Its load factor for the month for Europe was 88.3 per cent, an increase of two percentage points from 85.9 per cent last year.