It\u2019s been a long, hard climb back to overall profitability for Air France-KLM, which reported a 2015 net income of \u20ac118 million, compared to its \u20ac225 million loss in the strike-plagued 2014 \u2013 its first annual net profit since March of 2011. However, cargo figures continued to show declines, with revenue tonne kilometers (RTKs) dropping 8.5 percent from the previous year.
\nAF-KLM managed to narrow the losses for its cargo unit from \u20ac31 million in the the fourth quarter of 2014 to \u20ac23 million in the final three months of 2015, but cargo traffic was down 7.7 percent, year-over-year, at 309,000 tonnes in Q4 2015, resulting in a full-year total of 1.2 million tonnes \u2013 a 7.5 percent drop from 2014\u2019s total.
\nFor the full-year of 2015, losses in the cargo sector increased to \u20ac245 million, from \u20ac212 million in 2014, while total external revenues for cargo fell 9.5 percent to \u20ac2.4 billion.
\nIn an attempt to slash excess cargo capacity, the carrier cut its maindeck freighter capacity by more than 23 percent by phasing out five aircraft in 2015. This action helped reduce the fleet\u2019s all-cargo losses from \u20ac55 million in 2014 to \u20ac42 million last year.
\nBy the middle of 2016, AF-KLM expects to operate only five remaining freighters, which the carrier said will \u201cenable the full-freighter business to return to operating breakeven in 2017.\u201d In 2013, AF-KLM operated 13 freighters, which was exactly half as many as it operated when Air France merged with KLM in 2005.
\nMuch of the reason for AF-KLM\u2019s return to black ink came from a surge in operating income of \u20ac816 million for 2015, compared to a \u20ac129 million loss in 2014. Like-for-like, the operating result rose by \u20ac698 million, after corrections for the strike impact of (\u20ac425 million) and negative currency effects (\u20ac178 million).
\nSource: aircargoworld<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"