Air France-KLM reported a “significant increase in demand” as it reported a loss of €552 million for the three months to March.
However, Netherlands carrier KLM reported an operating profit of a €3 million for the first quarter against an operating loss of €363 million at Air France.
KLM’s strong performance saw it repay €311 million of the €942 million in state-backed loans it received during the pandemic
Air France-KLM forecast “strong summer demand” and said it would break even on its operations in the second quarter before operating profitably in the three months to September.
Group revenue in the first quarter almost doubled year on year to €4.445 billion, with the recovery accelerating in March “with dynamic bookings for the summer season”.
Air France-KLM chief executive Benjamin Smith said: “The performance of Air France KLM over the first quarter confirms recovery is here.
“In spite of the challenging context, with the continued effect of the Omicron variant, the situation in Ukraine and the sharp increase in fuel prices, the group recorded strong bookings.
“March was very encouraging with a significant increase in demand for corporate and premium traffic, complementing already strong leisure and visiting-friends-and-relations demand.”
Smith reported “a strong performance” on routes to and from the Caribbean, Indian Ocean, Africa and South America and “a strong capacity increase” over the North Atlantic.
However, he noted short-haul traffic was impacted by restrictions and “a lack of corporate traffic” at the start of the year, before March brought “a good improvement of corporate traffic”.
Air France-KLM operated 75% of the capacity it flew during the same period in 2019 during the quarter and plans to increase that to 80%-85% in the three months to June and to 85%-90% during July to September.
The group reported having €10.8 billion in liquidity at the end of March and net debt of almost €7.66 billion.
KLM chief executive Pieter Elbers said: “These first quarter figures give cause for optimism. Despite geopolitical tensions, high inflation and rising costs, recovery continues unabated.”
However, Elbers also noted: “Key markets in Asia are still closed to international travellers [and] the global airline industry is facing rising costs and scarcity in the labour market, which are putting pressure on operations.”
Elbers is due to stand down as chief executive in July when Marjan Rintel, currently president and chief executive of Dutch Railways, will take over.