AF KLM registers Q2 cargo traffic improvement but revenues down
31 / 07 / 2017
Air France KLM saw cargo traffic and load factors improve during the first half of the year, although it did register a small decline in revenues.
The Franco Dutch airline, which last week announced it would invest in Virgin Atlantic, saw second-quarter cargo revenues decline to €506m from €507m last year.
Meanwhile, traffic for the period increased by 2.7% year on year to 2.1bn revenue tonne km and its cargo load factor reached 59.2% from 58.5% a year earlier.
It is the second quarter in a row the airline has managed to record improving cargo revenues. While it has not register a year-on-year increase in cargo revenues since at least 2014, the gap is narrowing.
In the first quarter of this year there was a €25m difference compared with 2016, the past quarter saw that gap narrowed to just €1m.
KLM has been busy reducing its freighter fleet over the past year. At the end of June last year, it operated four B747-400Fs and two MD-11s. At the end of the first quarter this year, that was reduced to four B747-400Fs.
The results also lag behind those of rival IAG Group, which saw cargo revenues for the quarter increase by 7.9% on last year to €260m.
For the April to June second quarter, volumes rose 3.1% to 168,000 tonnes, and cargo tonne kms were up 6.4% to 1.4bn.
