Pharma and express bolsters Air France-KLM Q1 cargo revenues

Pharma and express deliveries and higher market prices have helped Air France-KLM Group’s total cargo revenues in the first quarter of 2022 hit €910m, an increase of 8.5% since the first quarter of 2021.

This increase in revenues is fully driven by a higher yield thanks to the focus on Pharmaceutical and Express deliveries, the airline group said.

The yield in North Asia increased significantly due to the closure of the Russian aerospace, it added.

The year-on-year increase in revenues comes despite a 11.9% drop in tons carried to 236,000 tons and a fall in the cargo load factor of 17.9 percentage points to 59.4%.

This reduction in load factor partly compensated by the yield increase led to a unit revenue per ATK down 6.1% at constant currency.

Capacity – measured in available tonne kms – for the first-quarter period was up 10.7% on a year earlier mainly due to the increase in belly capacity.

Cargo capacity in the first quarter is still 14% below the capacity in the first quarter of 2019 while the demand remains high, resulting in total revenues that are 66% higher than in the first quarter of 2019.

Last month, Air France-KLM finalised its order with Airbus for four A350F freighters with purchase rights for an additional four aircraft.

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