After record profit in 2023, worst quarter in two years follows for Air France-KLM: 480 million euros loss

Air France-KLM recorded a record profit of 934 million euros for the whole of 2023. The last quarter of that year was loss-making, which was partly due to the war in Gaza and the bad weather around Schiphol during the winter months.

The negative result in the first quarter of this year was partly due to high costs for KLM as a result of disruptions in January and February. There was also less turnover from the group’s freight division. In the first months of this year, Air France-KLM recorded a net loss of 480 million euros. A year earlier, the loss was 337 million euros, in 2022 it was 552 million euros.

The disruptions at KLM were caused by problems with the supply of parts. Together with a shortage of technical personnel for aircraft maintenance, this resulted in fewer available aircraft. Because KLM had to compensate travelers, incidental costs of 50 million euros were incurred.

Less freight traffic

In addition to the compensation costs, the aviation group also had to deal with lower turnover from the cargo division this quarter. It fell by almost 17 percent to 562 million euros. Air France-KLM notes in the results that demand for cargo flights was relatively high at the beginning of this year, partly due to the disruptions in the Red Sea. However, the company was unable to adequately respond to that demand. This was, for example, due to restrictions on Asian flights, because the airspace above Russia is avoided.

Air France-KLM managed to increase its total turnover by more than 5 percent to more than 6.6 billion euros. The number of passengers also increased, by just over 6 percent to almost 21 million.

Transavia contributed to those achievements. For example, the Air France-KLM subsidiary achieved a turnover of 462 million euros, an increase of 22 percent. The number of passengers also increased by almost 9 percent, while capacity was expanded by more than 11 percent. Bottom line, a loss of 166 million euros still remained, but that was 6 million euros less than in the first three months in 2023.