In the third quarter, Air France-KLM achieved higher revenue than the corresponding period of 2019, before Covid-19. The company raked in 460 million euros in net profit thanks to strong demand for air travel during the summer.
Air France-KLM actually took advantage of the crucial summer period by carrying 25 million passengers, an increase of 47.6% compared to the third quarter of 2021. But its turnover did much better, jumping by 77.6 % to 8.11 billion euros, a level 500 million euros higher than that of the third quarter of 2019, before the outbreak of Covid-19 which had divided by three the number of air passengers in the world in 2020. However, Air France-KLM deployed only 89% of its 2019 seat capacity this summer, with an occupancy rate of 88%.
Air France-KLM emerged more profitable from the Covid-19 crisis
This second consecutive quarter of a return to the green, obtained despite very high inflation and oil prices, allows the Franco-Dutch group to reduce its debt again, he said in a press release on Friday, announcing the reimbursement advance of one billion euros in state-guaranteed loans out of the 3.5 billion still due.
Thanks to this third quarter profit, the company is also in the green over the first nine months of the year, with a net result of 232 million euros. It had lost 7.1 billion euros in 2020 and 3.3 billion in 2021. Its net debt has decreased by 2.2 billion euros since the end of 2021, to 5.9 billion.
Saved from bankruptcy by the interventions of the French and Dutch states, and after two recapitalizations, the group emerged more profitable from the Covid-19 crisis.