Air France-KLM Losses Grow as Competition Intensifies


Skift Take

Competition is tough in Europe at the moment and Air France-KLM's losses don't look good. But it's traditionally a weak quarter for airlines so things should get better during spring and summer.

It’s been a tough winter period for some of Europe's biggest airline groups, with extra seats flooding into market causing problems in the seasonally weak first quarter of the year. Air France-KLM saw its net loss widen 20 percent to $357 million (€320 million) for the quarter until the end of March, a similar story to what happened at Lufthansa and Finnair. Revenue increased 3.1 percent to $6.7 billion (€6 billion), but costs also rose with the fuel bill up 13.2 percent to $1.3 billion (€1.2 billion). “As anticipated, the first quarter has been challenging