Air France-KLM has posted revenue of €5.55bn for the first quarter of 2013, which is stable on a like-for-like basis but represents a 2.2% decline over the €5.681bn booked in the same period last year. Currencies had a negative €108million impact on revenues, the airline said. Operating costs were reduced by 3.4% and by 2.0% on a constant currency basis. Excluding fuel, costs decreased by 2.3%, and by 1.3% on a constant currency basis. The fuel bill was €1.553bn, a drop of 6.3%, and down 3.5% on a constant currency basis. Total employee costs including temporary staff were down 3.8% to €1.846bn, and by 3.6% on a constant currency basis. At constant pension expense and scope, they declined by €60 million, well on track towards the €120 million reduction targeted for the full year.
Indeed, the airline group has reported a broadly positive effect of Transform 2015 even though it stated that the “operating environment remains tough” and that there are “measures underway to address headwinds from Caracas route and the slower than expected recovery in cargo demand”.
EBITDA was a loss of €50 million, which was an improvement of €66 million over the same period last year. The operating result was a loss of €-445 million compared to €-532 million in 2013, which is an €87 million improvement. Currencies had a €15 million net negative impact on the first quarter operating result. Net result, group share stood at €-608 million against €-641 million euros a year ago. The airline pointed out that this result was impacted by €117 million of foreign exchange losses in particular related to an adjustment in the value of the cash held by the Group in Venezuela, to take into account the currency conversion risk.
First quarter 2014 passenger revenue was €4.365bn – a drop of 1.9% but stable on a constant currency basis. The passenger business was particularly impacted by the calendar effect of Easter, which fell in March last year. The operating result of the passenger business stood at €-378 million, versus €-447 million in Q1 2013, an improvement of €80 million euros on a constant currency basis.
Total passenger traffic rose by 2.1% while capacity rose by 1.3% leading to a 0.6 point improvement in load factor to 82.8%. Unit revenue per Available Seat Kilometer (RASK) fell by 2.5% and by 0.7% like-for-like. Unit costs (CASK) were reduced by 3.9% and by 2.4% like-for-like. Long-haul traffic rose 2.2% for a 2.1% rise in capacity, leading to a stable load factor at 85.2%. Long-haul RASK was down 0.4% like-for-like.
As planned in the framework of Transform 2015, medium-haul capacity was reduced by 2.2%. Traffic rose by 1.6%, leading to a 2.7 point improvement in load factor to 73.3%. Medium-haul RASK improved by 0.6% like-for-like.
Even though Air France’s first quarter numbers were on the weak side of analysts’ expectations, they note that Q1 is a seasonally soft quarter for the group.