Air France-KLM sees 'significant recovery' in June. Aer Lingus drops
Air France-KLM shares rose 2.2% yesterday as the airline reported a "further significant recovery in the passenger and cargo businesses, both in terms of traffic and unit revenues" in Jun-2010. According to Air France-KLM: "This reflects an improvement in demand, as well as prudent capacity management."
Passenger traffic rose 4.7%, while capacity was up slightly by 0.4%, leading to a 3.5 point increase in load factor to 83.8%. The number of passengers totalled 6.5 million (+1.3%).
Unit revenue per available seat kilometre (RASK) - excluding currency - rose "strongly" compared with Jun-2009, driven by economy and premium classes. In the long-haul segment, the rise was "especially marked" on the Asia, North America and Latin America networks. In medium-haul, the Paris-Europe routes continued to benefit from the launch of the business traveller-oriented "Premium eco" product, "which has enjoyed a positive response from customers", according to the airline. Capacity continues to be adapted on the European network (-4.7%). Traffic declined slightly (-0.8%), leading to a load factor of 75.9%, up 3.0 points.
Systemwide cargo traffic rose 0.8%, while capacity was down 2.8%, producing a load factor gain of 2.4 points to 67.7%. Unit revenue per available tonne kilometre (RATK) was "up strongly compared with Jun-2009".
Elsewhere, Aer Lingus' stock (-4.8%) was under pressure yesterday, after it reported total passenger numbers fell 8.6% in Jun-2010 to 941,000. Load factor in June rose by 0.8 ppts to 82.1%
Europe selected airlines daily share price movements (% change): 07-Jul-2010
Source: Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation, Yahoo! Finance & Reuters