Air France-KLM loses 1.7 billion euros in summer months | Financial

Air France-KLM has already taken several measures to reduce costs. To this end, agreements were reached with various trade unions. The airline has set aside 565 million euros for the adjustments in the third quarter alone. In the first nine months of the year, the net loss amounted to more than 6 billion euros.

The months of July, August and September are usually used by many holidaymakers. But that was different this year. The Air France-KLM division Transavia alone, which normally operates many holiday flights, saw the number of passengers fall by more than 63 percent to 2 million travelers in the measurement period.

Nevertheless, flights from the low-cost carrier to holiday resorts such as Spain, Greece, Portugal and Italy were still operated with some regularity. According to the airline company, there were reassuring passenger numbers on flights and good margins, but also travel restrictions. Transavia kept the damage somewhat limited with an operational loss of 13 million euros.

KLM had an operational deficit of 234 million euros. At sister company Air France, this result was minus 807 million euros. The turnover of Air France-KLM decreased by more than two-thirds on an annual basis to 2.5 billion euros. The number of passengers fell by 71 percent to 6.8 million travelers.

The pain this year is not over yet. The challenging fourth quarter, in which additional corona measures were again taken in many countries, will clearly weigh on the result. According to Air France-KLM, the operating result will therefore be “substantially” lower than in the third quarter.

Since the beginning of the crisis, Air France-KLM has already had to make 1.8 billion euros in repayments. That includes 300 million euros in vouchers that have been issued. Personnel costs fell by 36 percent in the third quarter, after, among other things, the retirement of temporary workers and external employees. A total of 5,500 employees have already left. By the end of 2020, 9,000 employees must be said goodbye, of whom 5,000 at KLM.

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