Despite widespread losses across the industry, Air France-KLM only posted a modest cargo drop in August, with revenue decreasing 0.2 percent year-over-year. One factor contributing to this small loss was the carrier’s increased capacity, which was up 2.8 percent from August 2010.
Air France-KLM’s increased capacity also led to a slight decrease in load factor, falling from 64.4 percent to 62.5 percent year-over-year.
Regardless of these numbers, August brought good news for the European carrier in terms of geographical diversification. Revenue tonne-kilometers (RTK) in the Caribbean/Indian Ocean and Africa/Middle East regions grew 4.6 percent and 0.5 percent year-over-year, respectively. RTK was also up dramatically in the European region, increasing 24.3 percent to 7 million.
The Americas was another region of RTK growth, surging from 367 million to 371 million. But this number was offset by a 2-percent reduction in load factor, which shrunk from 64.5 percent to 62.5 percent.
Not all regions posted positive numbers in August, however. RTK dropped 2.5 percent year-over-year in the Asia-Pacific, a testament to the area’s sluggish economy and aftershock of Japan’s tsunami and earthquake in March.
On the passenger side, traffic increased 7.6 percent from August 2010, an Air France-KLM spokesperson revealed. Regions of particular improvement included the Caribbean/Indian Ocean and European networks, with the Americas leading the way in growth. Traffic in the Asia-Pacific region also grew moderately, increasing 9 percent year-over-year.
