There were no real surprises in the financial results for French air transport. 2020 confirmed as the worst year ever for Air France-KLM. The bi-national tandem underwent a historic loss of 7.1 billion euros. By way of comparison, the biggest loss recorded by the Group in the 2009-2010 financial year was 'only' 1.6 billion euros. Sales collapsed by 59% to 11.1 billion euros, while operating profit showed a loss of 4.5 billion euros, down by 5.7 billion euros on 2019.
Air France-KLM saw its passenger numbers fall by 67 1TP3Q. For a total of 34.1 million passengers. The load factor was down 29.2 points to 58.8%. Freight transport fell by 21 %.
Slow recovery expected in the second half
Capacity for 2020which was affected by the Covid-19 crisis, stood at 46% at last year's level. The group says it has shown flexibility in managing its fleet by increasing capacity during the summer and Christmas periods. Air France-KLM also reported solid performances on routes with fewer restrictions (domestic France, Caribbean & Indian Ocean and Africa/Middle East). The Group stresses thathe right balance between Air France and KLM made it possible to offer a seat and flight capacity often superior to the competition.
The Group expects traffic to pick up again later this year. But this recovery will be slow and largely conditional on progress in rolling out vaccination worldwide. Air France-KLM has announced that it will gradually increase its capacity until summer 2021. It expects traffic growth in the second and third quarters of 2021.
We also note that the Group's financial results Aéroports de Paris (ADP) also posted losses. The company lost 1.17 billion euros last year.. Its turnover fell by 54.5% compared with 2019, to €2.14 billion. The airport authority expects traffic to fall by 2021 which would represent between 35% and 45% of the total number of passengers in 2019.
