Tuesday, Air France KLM (AFRAF.PK) reported a fall in its load factor, but an increase in the traffic for September. The company said traffic was impacted by Ramadan and an unfavorable comparison basis in September 2007. The group recorded an increase in yield excluding currency impact.
Air France reported that total group's revenue pax-kilometers, or RPK was 17.99 billion, a rise of 0.5% in comparison with 17.90 billion in the same month last year. Available seat-kilometers, or ASK showed an increase of 2.2% to 22.24 billion from 21.76 billion in the prior year. Load factor for the total group averaged 80.9%, a decline of 1.4 points from 82.3% in the previous year.
For the September month, passengers carried by the total group were 6.52 million, down 1.5% from 6.62 million, a year earlier.
Geographic wise, Europe's load factor dropped by 2.4 points to 72.5% from 74.9% in the last year. Americas' load factor gained 1.0 point to 85.9% from 84.9%, a year ago.
Load factor for the Asia/Pacific declined 3.3 points to 86.4% from 89.7% in the prior year; mainly due to the traffic growth, which was limited to 1.4%.
Africa/Middle East showed a load factor of 78.7%, compared to 80.8% in the previous year. Africa and Middle East network traffic fell 1.6% with capacity up 1.0%, notably due to a lower level of activity linked to the Ramadan period.
Load factor for the Caribbean/Indian Ocean decreased 3.4 points to 72.6% from 76.1%, a year earlier. The Caribbean and Indian Ocean network saw a 4.2% drop in traffic with capacity virtually stable on the back of increased competition on the Caribbean routes.
For Cargo activity, the company reported total group's Revenue tonne-km, or RTK of 848 million, down 12.2% from 967 million in the same period last year. Available tonne-km, or ATK was 1.388 billion, dropped 3.2% from 1.435 billion in the prior year. Load factor declined 6.3 points to 61.1% from 67.4% in the comparable period last year.
The company said Cargo traffic fell sharply in September 2008 i.e. a decline of 12.2% with capacity down 3.2%. The decline was mainly due to a marked slowdown in flows, in particular with Asia.
AFRAF.PK lastly traded on September 30 at $23.97.
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