According to Pierre-Henri Gourgeon, Chief Executive Officer of Air France-KLM, this growth can be explained by the following factors "more favourable economic environment. Despite "numerous exceptional events (editor's note: the Icelandic volcano, snow, strikes) which affected operations".As a result, the Group was able to improve its operating profit to 122 million euros in 2010-2011, compared with a deficit of 1.11 billion euros in 2009-2010.
Air France - KLM remains confident for the current year, but the airline, like the rest of the industry, is having to contend with soaring fuel prices. However, hedging - a financial product that allows customers to buy fuel in advance - and higher ticket prices should reduce the impact of rising prices. There remains the risk of discouraging some customers if fares become too high.
Among the other challenges facing the carrier, the Franco-Dutch group must successfully transform its short- and medium-haul business in order to remain among the world's leaders and win back points from the low-cost carriers, while pursuing its long-haul alliance strategy, in particular with airlines from the Far East and India, to counter the rise of the Gulf carriers. At the same time, the group must improve its balance sheet and reduce its debt so that it is ready to bid if a takeover opportunity arises.
Finally, Air France-KLM is still waiting to find out exactly what happened on 1 June 2009 when flight AF 447 crashed into the Atlantic. However, since the recovery and decoding of the black boxes, investigators from the Bureau d'Etudes et Enquêtes (BEA) have been increasingly inclined to believe that it was human error.
