SkyTeam alliance leader in Europe Air France has reported first quarter (April-June) results which, so far, seem immune to the economic downturn, showing a 14% turnover increase compared with the same period in 2000, with profits up by 9.5%. Yield is up marginally, and despite offering 9.1% more capacity in revenue passenger kilometres (RPK), the high load factor of 79% was down by 0.4 percentage points. Air France says a decline in revenue on routes to the Americas was offset by "strong commercial performance on Caribbean, Indian Ocean, Africa and Middle East routes", and it plans to stop adding capacity on the North Atlantic route. The Air France Group is forecasting a full year operating profit in line with last year's having revealed a first quarter up 36% to $225 million.
Performance elsewhere is patchy. Star Alliance's European flag carrier Lufthansa is bullish about the group's first half (January-June) performance with results improved in all sectors, the best coming from its maintenance and airline catering businesses.
Source: Flight International
