Significant loss for Air France-KLM due to bad weather and long-term maintenance | Economy

The weather was particularly bad in January and February, a spokesperson for the airline told NU.nl. As a result, travelers had to be rebooked on other flights.

In addition, aircraft maintenance took longer than expected. It took more time to get certain parts because suppliers were short-staffed. “There were fewer aircraft available to fly,” the spokesperson said.

KLM had to hire aircraft to accommodate the longer maintenance time and compensate travelers for flight cancellations. The latter already cost KLM about 50 million euros.

According to the spokesperson, the problems due to the weather and maintenance were quickly resolved. “We saw stabilization in March. The following months also went well. The start of the May holidays went smoothly.”

The airline also experienced lower revenue from its cargo division last quarter. Demand for cargo flights was high at the beginning of this year due to the unrest in the Red Sea. But Air France-KLM could not fully meet that demand due to restrictions on Asian flights by avoiding the airspace above Russia.

The number of passengers at the airline increased by just over 6 percent to almost 21 million. More tickets were also booked with Transavia. The Air France-KLM subsidiary had almost 9 percent more passengers than the previous quarter.