Air France KLM passenger traffic up 6.6% in March 2006

The activity of the Air France KLM group remained buoyant in March 2006 despite an unfavorable calendar effect. The timing of Easter week in April this year weighed on traffic volumes and the tourism activity was affected by the Chikungunya epidemic in Indian Ocean zone. However, the yield benefited from stronger business traffic.

Overall, traffic increased by 6.6% on 7.5% higher capacity in March. The load factor stood at 79.4%, down slightly (-0.7 points). Excluding the Caribbean and Indian Ocean sector, traffic increased by 8.6% and the load factor remained virtually stable. The group carried over 5.8 million passengers, up 4.7%. 

On the Americas, activity remained strong with traffic increasing by 8.1% in line with capacity (+8.2%). The load factor remained at the good level of 87.1% (-0.1 points). The success of the group's development in Latin America is confirmed by an 18.5% rise in traffic on an increase of 14.6% in capacity and an improvement of 2.9 points in the load factor to 87.2%.

Asia recorded another strong performance with a 2.4-point increase in the load factor (85%), as traffic was up 15.7% on 12.4% higher capacity.

On the Africa and the Middle East network, traffic increased by 7%. As capacity was up 11.5%, the load factor declined by 3.1 points to 74.3%.

Activity on the Indian Ocean destinations was strongly impacted by the Chikungunya epidemic. Total traffic on the Indian Ocean and Caribbean sector decreased by 5.3% while capacity was down 0.8%. The load factor declined by 3.8 points but remained at the high level of 80.9%.

On the European network, traffic increased by 2.7% on 4.6% higher capacity. The load factor stood at 67.1% (down 1.2 points).

During the financial year 2005-06, Air France KLM posted an excellent performance with traffic increasing strongly (up 8.6%) on 6.2% higher capacity. The load factor gained 1.8 points to reach 80.6%. The group carried 70 million passengers (up 6.4%).

Cargo operations

In March, cargo activity posted a 9.8% increase in traffic on 5.8% higher capacity. The load factor gained 2.6 points to reach 69.1%.

In 2005-06, cargo traffic grew 3.5% on 6.5% higher capacity. The cargo load factor stood at 66.1% (down 1.9 points).

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