Air France-KLM and airberlin gain on October performance
Shares in Air France-KLM and airberlin both gained 0.8% as the carriers revealed healthy traffic results for Oct-2010.
Air France sees yield increases
Despite the disruption caused by repeated air traffic control strikes in France, Air France-KLM's passenger and cargo activities maintained the positive trend seen over the past few months, with a further rise in traffic and load factors and a "marked improvement" in unit revenues last month.
Passenger traffic (RPKs) increased by 3.1% year-on-year in Oct-2010 on a slight increase in capacity (+1.0%), leading to a 1.7 point rise in load factor to a "very high" 84.2%. The carrier noted that unit revenue per available seat kilometre (RASK) excluding currency was "up strongly" compared with Oct-2009, with "dynamic" performances in economy and premium classes.
Air France-KLM's cargo traffic rose by 6.4% on a 2.4% capacity increase, resulting in a 2.7 ppts increase in cargo load factor to 70.3%. Unit revenue per available ton-kilometre (RATK) excluding currency rose "strongly" versus Oct-2009.
The group recently published its schedule for winter 2010-11, with a moderate (+3.3%) increase in capacity, driven by targeted increases in long-haul (+4.1%) and virtually unchanged medium-haul capacity (+0.5%).
airberlin reports more pax, higher load factors
airberlin handled 3.5 million passenger in Oct-2010, representing a 7.6% increase year-on-year (including those traveling on the acquired NIKI and TUIfly routes). Passenger load factor averaged 80.3% last month, up 0.2 ppts.
Elsewhere, Aer Lingus kept falling after its third quarter financial report and cautious outlook, while Norwegian Air Shuttle kept soaring after its strong October traffic report.
Europe selected airlines daily share price movements (% change): 08-Nov-2010
Source: Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation, Yahoo! Finance & Reuters