Air France-KLM Group, Europe’s biggest airline, said December passenger traffic rose, helped by leisure travel, while cargo traffic plunged as global trade slowed.
Traffic was up 1.3 per cent amid a 0.9 per cent increase in capacity, while cargo plummeted 20 per cent, the Paris-based carrier said today in a statement.
The passenger load factor, the proportion of seats filled, was 78.9 per cent, 0.3 point higher than a year earlier.
Air France succeeded in lifting traffic every month in the past year except November, when it suffered a strike, by serving a wider range of customers and destinations than competitors. In contrast, British Airways Plc, which said January 6 that traffic fell in December for the 10th consecutive month, is heavily dependent on the London-to-New York business-travel market.
Traffic, or the number of passengers multiplied by kilometers flown, to the Americas rose 4.1 per cent with capacity up 2.9 per cent. Asia traffic rose 0.4 per cent, as did capacity. The load factor was stable at 82.2 per cent. In Europe, traffic edged up 0.1 per cent with capacity declining 0.3 percent, leading to a 0.3 point gain in the load factor.
The decline in cargo came amid a slowdown in global trade. Freight capacity fell 6.2 percent, bringing the December cargo load factor to 59.6 percent, a decline of 10.6 points from a year earlier.
At British Airways, Europe’s No. 3 carrier, traffic in December declined 3.4 percent, while first and business classes plunged 12 per cent and economy traffic fell 1.7 per cent. Air France doesn’t break out premium versus economy traffic by month.
It said that the increase in passenger traffic in December came from a boost in leisure travelers.
Global airline traffic may drop 3 per cent in 2009, the International Air Transport Association forecast in December.
