PARIS (dpa-AFX) - Shares of Air France - KLM (AFLYY.PK, AFRAF.PK) declined around 2.4 percent in the morning trade in Paris after the Franco-Dutch airline reported Monday a decline in load factor and flat traffic for the month of March, despite increase in capacity. According to the firm, traffic, load factor and unit revenue were negatively impacted by Easter week falling in April this year versus March last year.
The company said its results reflected strong impact of medium-haul restructuring especially on Air France point-to-point network, compensated by capacity growth at KLM.
The traffic, measured in terms of revenue pax-kilometers or RPK, was 18.66 billion, compared to 18.65 RPK last year. The airline carried 6.2980 million passengers in March, a 0.3 percent rise from 6.276 million passengers carried in the prior year.
Available seat-kilometers or ASK, a gauge for capacity, rose 1.5 percent to 22.45 billion from 22.11 billion in the same month last year.
Monthly load factor, meanwhile, declined 1.2 percent to 83.1 percent from 84.3 percent in the previous year.
In the long haul, traffic and number of passengers carried declined 0.2 percent each, and load factor dropped 1.6 percent, while capacity grew 1.7 percent.
In the month, Americas region posted 0.5 percent rise in traffic and 4.7 percent increase in capacity mainly driven by Latin America, despite a 3.3 percent decline in load factor. Meanwhile, Asia Pacific region posted decline in all measures in the month.
In the medium haul, excluding Cityjet, passengers carried and capacity grew 0.6 percent each, traffic increased 1 percent, and load factor edged up 0.3 percent.
Cargo traffic in the month increased 2.7 percent to 898 million revenue tonne-km, while capacity declined 1.3 percent to 1.33 billion available tonne-km. Cargo load factor increased 2.7 percent year-over-year to 67.7 percent.
In Paris, Air France - KLM shares lost 0.29 euro or 2.43 percent, and traded at 11.65 euros.
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX