Air France-KLM records largest loss since the corona crisis: 480 million

NOS News•today, 09:01•Amended today, 11:17

Air France-KLM recorded the largest loss since the corona crisis in the past quarter: 480 million euros. The airline is affected by geopolitical tensions in the world, which means, for example, that aircraft have to be diverted and parts for aircraft arrive later.

In addition, the loss is due to rising salary costs, while income from freight transport was also disappointing.

The airline did transport more passengers, about 20 million. That is 6.2 percent more than last year. KLM did relatively well and transported almost 18 percent more travelers in the first three months of this year.

Marjan Rintel, KLM’s chief executive, speaks of a series of problems that are making things difficult this year. “On the one hand, we have had to deal with a lot of bad weather, which leads to cancellations and rebookings. At the same time, we suffer from the long delivery time of parts. They are difficult to obtain, and we also do not have all the people in-house.”

The staff shortage is still a consequence of the corona crisis, when KLM had to let go of many ground and cabin crew. “You also see this shortage among our suppliers,” says Rintel.

The conflicts in the world are on top of that. “You sometimes have to wait between 80 and 300 days before a part is available. We can no longer fly over Russia. So we always have to detour to Asia. This means you need more fuel and pilots. You also see this with the geopolitical tensions in the Middle East and Africa.”

Although all these problems will continue for a while, Rintel does expect improvements. According to her, an improvement program already bore fruit in March. “We hire a lot of people, technicians and pilots. This makes us less vulnerable if we have to wait for parts.”

Air France-KLM is not the only one with deep red numbers. Lufthansa also reported a quarterly loss of 273 million euros this morning. Revenues here fell even more sharply due to persistent strikes. This, among other things, increased the costs of compensating passengers.

In addition, declining freight transport affects the operating result. The German airline announces it will cut costs, stop new projects and possibly implement a reorganization.