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The Air France-KLM Group is seeing the “first signs of recovery,” with plans to fly about two-thirds of its pre-Covid-19 capacity in the third quarter.
The group reported €2.75 billion in total revenues for the second quarter of 2021, which is €1.57 billion more than the group reported at this time last year but less than half of its total revenue in the second quarter of 2019. Its capacity was just under half of 2019 levels in the second quarter. The group said it flew “more capacity than its main European competitors” during the quarter. The group’s average load factor for the quarter was 43.7 percent.
The best performing routes were domestic French routes as well as those to Greece and the Antilles, according to the group.
“Thanks to the easing of travel restrictions in several key regions, the second quarter of 2021 saw the first signs of the long-awaited recovery,” Air France-KLM CEO Benjamin Smith said in a statement. “Reciprocity of borders reopening and the acceleration of the vaccination roll-out worldwide, especially in the context of the rise of the delta variant, will play a key role in maintaining this momentum.”
The group noted that booking trends continued to improve after June, including on North Atlantic routes as Europe eased restrictions for fully vaccinated U.S. residents. It plans to operate between 60 percent and 70 percent of 2019 capacity in the third quarter, though the group is not forecasting capacity beyond the third quarter “due to the uncertainty of the reopening of the North Atlantic for European citizens and uncertainty concerning travel restrictions waiving.”
Air France-KLM reported a net loss of €1.49 billion for the quarter, an improvement of €1.12 billion compared with the second quarter of 2020.
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