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The Air France KLM Group saw its cargo revenues and traffic improve slightly in the second quarter of the year, despite one of its freighters being in maintenance for longer than expected.
The Franco-Dutch airline group saw second-quarter cargo revenues increase by 3.6% year on year to €565m, while cargo traffic was up 1.1% to 1.6bn revenue tonnne kms and capacity increased 1.4% to 3.6bn available tonne km (ATK).
Elsewhere, the group's cargo revenues per ATK improved by 1% and the load factor was down 0.1 percentage points to 45.5%.
"Full freighter capacity was negatively impacted by longer-than-expected maintenance," the group said. "Traffic grew 1.1% slightly below capacity growth, keeping the load factor broadly stable at 45.5%."
In the second quarter of last year, the carrier was affected by the rollout of a new IT system at its Paris CDG hub.
And in June, KLM completed the cutover from the old IT systems to the new system.
For comparison, the IAG Group saw its cargo traffic increase by 1.6% during the second quarter and cargo revenues were up 9.9%.
Lufthansa's logistics division saw its revenues improve by 3% and cargo traffic increased 6.6%.
The performance across three of Europe's leading airlines comes as market conditions have been unpredictable due to US moves to introduce tariffs and clampdown on e-commerce, and sluggish economic performance.
On the other hand, the on/off nature of the tariffs has led to several rounds of front loading and helped keep airfreight rates elevated.
