Air France-KLM to run skeleton operation

Thursday, April 9, 2020

Air France-KLM has decided to run a “skeleton operation” throughout the months of April and May. The carrier already grounded its capacity by more than a third back in March. The action came in light of the COVID-19 pandemic and its adverse effects on the aviation sector across the globe.

The group informed that traffic at its two mainline carriers dropped 51% in a year-over-year basis last month compelling the group to cut capacity by 35%. This led to a 21.6% point reduction in load factor to 65.4%. Passenger numbers fell 57% to 3.1 million. The biggest capacity cut came to Air France-KLM’s Asia-Pacific network with 48%.

It was followed by its short and medium haul network, where available seat-kilometres fell 44%. Air France and KLM mentioned that they expected to suspend more than 90% of planned capacity in April and May.

However the group has decided to continue serving key city-pairs by a skeleton operation from their respective hubs. It also said that no future insight would be possible due to high level of uncertainty over the duration of the coronavirus pandemic.

Cargo activity across the group did not fall quite as sharply as a 28% reduction in capacity almost matched a 29% drop in traffic. Cargo loads remained relatively unchanged at 61.5% versus 62.3% a year ago.

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