Air France-KLM’s revenue from corporate clients reached 75 per cent of 2019 levels during the final quarter of 2022 on the back of “solid” business demand. The European airline giant revealed that business traffic was at 62 per cent of pre-pandemic figures during Q4, up by one percentage point on the previous quarter.
The company said that the recovery of corporate travel, combined with strong sales in the summer and high demand for premium cabins, had allowed it to achieve a better yield during 2022 than in 2019.
Air France-KLM highlighted the good performance of Air France’s business cabin and KLM’s premium economy service on its North Atlantic routes.
The company also saw a strong corporate recovery on routes to Africa, driven by east and southern Africa for KLM and west and central African countries for Air France.
Air France-KLM Group’s CEO Benjamin Smith said: “In spite of the Omicron strain, the war in Ukraine, the inflationary situation and the operational disruptions at major international airports last summer, our group and its airlines were able to successfully capture a strong demand for travel.”
The group’s full-year results show that revenue increased by 84.4 per cent year-on-year in 2022 to reach €26.4 billion, buoyed by record sales in the final quarter, while net profit was €728 million last year, an increase of €4 billion on 2021.
Capacity for Air France-KLM’s airlines recovered to 85 per cent of 2019’s numbers with a load factor of 84 per cent during the year, up by nearly 25 percentage points on the previous year, as traffic reached 83.3 million.
The company expects capacity in the first half of 2023 to further recover to 90-95 per cent of pre-Covid seats and then be above 95 per cent for the second half of the year.
Air France-KLM also confirmed plans to pay back all remaining state aid from the French and Dutch governments by April 2023.
