Air France-KLM beats quarterly forecasts following boom in travel bookings
Air France-KLM announced it has beaten its own profit forecasts for the first quarter following a boom in travel bookings.
In the three months ended 31 March, the French-Dutch power house posted a €221m EBITDA, a 135 per cent increase on last year’s losses worth €628m.
Despite taking a hit as a result of the ongoing impact of both the pandemic and the war in Ukraine, Air France-KLM said it has managed to soften the blow to its earnings after it hiked its fares..
“In spite of a challenging context, the group posted once again a positive EBITDA and recorded strong bookings for the following quarter,” said chief executive Benjamin Smith.
According to Smith, March figures were “notably very encouraging,” as both corporate and leisure demand continued to grow.
“This paves the way for a successful summer season in all our activities, which we continue to strengthen through our extensive transformation plan.”
The results come on the same day Lufthansa posted a bigger than expected loss, which the company said it will offset in the second quarter of this year.