Air France-KLM March Traffic, Capacity Rise - Update

Franco-Dutch airline Air France-KLM reported Tuesday increases in passenger traffic, capacity and load factor for the month of March and its first quarter. The company saw favorable comparisons in March, absent events such as the Japanese tsunami and the political crisis in Ivory Coast that hit last year's traffic.

Passenger traffic for the month grew 6.8 percent 18.34 billion revenue pax-kilometers or RPKs from 17.17 billion RPKs in the previous year. The company said it has restated passenger data to include the passenger business of Martinair.

Capacity, measured in available seat-kilometers or ASKs, improved 1.8 percent to 22.22 billion ASKs. Unit revenue per available seat kilometer ex-currency improved in a context of a sharp rise in the fuel price, the company stated.

Load factor for the month increased 3.8 points to 82.5 percent from 78.7 percent a year ago. The number of passengers carried stood at 6.37 million, up 6.3 percent from last year.

The European network traffic, including France, improved 7.2 percent and capacity was up 2.7 percent. Load factor increased 3 points and stood at 71.9 percent.

On the Americas network, capacity increased 2.5 percent and traffic rose 9.7 percent. Load factor increased 5.8 points to 88.2 percent.

Meanwhile, cargo traffic for the month declined 3.4 percent to 995 revenue tonne-km and load factor dropped 2 points to 69.2 percent. Capacity edged down 0.6 percent to 1,438 available tonne-km.

For the first quarter, passenger traffic grew 5.5 percent to 51.73 billion RPKs and capacity increased 1.6 percent to 63.39 billion ASKs. The number of passengers grew 5.6 percent to 17.46 million and load factor improved 3.1 points to 81.6 percent.

In Paris, Air France-KLM shares are currently trading at 3.92 euros, down 0.08 percent.