The recent increases in the amount Schiphol airport charges airlines to use its facilities has prompted Air France-KLM to review its Dutch mainline unit’s operating model.
Speaking on an earnings call on 6 November, Air France-KLM chief financial officer Steven Zaat described the situation at Schiphol – where charges are rising by a cumulative 33% over the next three years – as “very terrible” for KLM.
“We cannot go on like this,” he says.
Zaat explains that Schiphol charges are offsetting the progress being made on KLM’s Back on Track programme, which was launched in 2024 with an aim to improve the SkyTeam carrier’s cost and operational performance.
Amid that dynamic, “we have to review… what we are going to do with KLM, what is the right model and we are working on that”, he says.
Discussions are taking place with Schiphol’s management team on “next steps”, Zaat says without elaborating.
The situation is being exacerbated by other factors, including demand weakness from markets including India and Africa caused by new immigration rules in the USA, which has driven down yields in economy cabins across Air France-KLM’s network passenger business. At the same time, European carriers face rising sustainability-related charges.
On Schiphol charges, IATA recently suggested that the increases approved out to 2027 will effectively mean they will have doubled since 2019 by that point, making the facility Europe’s second most expensive, behind London Heathrow, having previously been ranked ninth.
For its part, Schiphol has explained that the increases in charges are driven by “exceptionally high inflation and sharply increased interest rates over the past three years”, alongside ”compensation for the losses made during the pandemic years”.
Air France-KLM said its third quarter was a “mixed” affair, with the business failing to recover the ground it lost during last summer’s weak equivalent period, when the negative demand impact of the Paris Olympic Games weighed on its earnings.
Air France-KLM’s revenue increased by 3% in the seasonally strong third quarter to €9.2 billion ($10.6 billion), helping it to a slightly improved operating result of €1.2 billion. Its net profit fell slightly to €768 million