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The Air France KLM (AFKLM) Group’s cargo business saw revenue, volumes, load factor and yields improve in the first quarter of the year.
Cargo revenues for the period increased 10.8% year on year to €622m, while cargo volume was up 4.1% to 224,000 tons, the load factor improved by two percentage points to 49% and revenues per available tonne km (ATK) were up 16.2% to €15.05 cents.
The increase is just ahead of the market, which is estimated to have grown by around 3-4% during the first quarter.
AFKLM explained that during the first quarter of last year, the cargo business was affected by the troubled rollout of a new IT system. Meanwhile, this year’s performance was negatively affected by freighter maintenance.
"Full freighter capacity was negatively impacted by longer-than-expected maintenance," the company said in a results release. "Supported by a strong market, traffic growth (4.5%) was above the capacity growth and has led to an increase of two points of load factor, reaching 49%.
"Together with an 11.4% increase in yield, unit revenue per ATK increased by 16.2% at constant currency, although last year, first quarter results were negatively impacted by the implementation of a Cargo IT system for Air France."
Revenues increasing at a faster pace than traffic also reflects market conditions. Data provider Xeneta said that global average airfreight rates were up 17% in January, 10% in February and 6% in March.
Yesterday, Lufthansa reported a 9% increase in cargo traffic, although it benefited from an additional freighter.
