March
2013 was impacted by adverse weather conditions which significantly
disrupted operations in Paris
for two days.
Elsewhere, the early timing of Easter (which fell in April in 2012)
underpinned leisure traffic,
which partly
explains the improvement in load factor.
Passenger
Passenger
activity in March 2013 recorded a rise in traffic of 2.2% for
virtually stable capacity (+0.2%).
The load
factor stood at 84.2% (+1.7 points). The group carried 6.45 million
passengers, 1.3% more than
in March 2012.
Unit revenue per available seat kilometer (RASK) ex-currency was
slightly higher than in
2012.
On the
Americas network, traffic rose by 0.5% for capacity down by 0.6%,
leading to a 1.0 point rise
in load factor
which reached the very high level of 89.1%.
The Asia
network recorded a rise of 5.1% in traffic with capacity up by 4.9%.
The load factor gained
0.2 points t
o 86.9%.
On the Africa
and Middle East network, traffic was up by 3.2% with capacity rising
by 1.3%. The load
factor gained
1.5 points to
80.3%.
The Caribbean
and Indian Ocean network recorded a 1.0% rise in traffic for capacity
down by 2.8%.
The load
factor gained
3.3 points to
87.5%.
The European
network saw traffic up by 1.8% with a 2.5% reduction in capacity. The
load factor stood
at 75.1%, a
rise of 3.2 points. Further to the launch of ‘Hop!’ regrouping
Air France’s French regional
activity,
March traffic includes the activity of Airlinair for the whole of the
first quarter. On a
comparable
basis, the European network would have recorded a 1.0% rise in
traffic for capacity down
by 3.6%. The
load factor would have stood at 75.6%, up 3.5 points.
Cargo
In March 2013,
the cargo activity recorded a 12.1% decline in traffic for capacity
down by 6.6%. The load
factor
declined by 4.1 points to 65.1%. In additition to lacklustre
international trade this activity was
disrupted by
the snowy conditions as well as industrial action in Paris. Unit
revenue per available ton
kilometer
(RATK) ex-currency was lower than in March 2012.
Recent
developments
KLM unveiled
its new Word Business Class including a “full
-
flat” seat,
fully reclinable and transformed
into a real
bed during the flight. This cabin will be progressively installed on
the KLM long-haul fleet as
of July 2013.
The group thereby pursues its investments aimed at matching the
expectations of its
customers and
offering them an exceptional and continually improving level of
service on board.
The group
continues to develop its network, with notably, as of the Summer
season, the launch by
KLM of three
new routes from Amsterdam to Fukuoka (Japan), Ålesund (Norway) and
Manston (Kent,
United
Kingdom), and by Air France of routes from Paris to Minneapolis
(United States), Montevideo
(Uruguay) and
Kuala-Lumpur (Malaysia).
Air France and
Canada’s WestJet have signed a code share agreement enabling Air
France to offer
its customers
15 new Canadian routes operated by WestJet.
