Despite strike action, air traffic control issues and weather conditions, Air France-KLM still managed to transport an amazing 100 million passengers during 2018, of which some 7.7 million flew in December alone.
KLM continued to outperform Air France and saw an increase of 4.5% in the number of passengers it carried during 2018 compared to 2017. In total KLM welcomed a record 34.2 million passengers on its flights during the whole of 2018. In December passenger numbers were up by over 7% year on year, whereas Air France saw a slight drop in December traffic.
The strong passenger growth resulted in a record load factor of 89.1% for the entire year for KLM, which is 0.7%pt higher than in 2017. Air France saw a 0.5% rise in the overall load factor for the year to 86.2%, yet December the carrier saw it slip to 84.4%
Transavia performed incredibly well, seeing double-digit increases in its December traffic and year on year revenue, with load factor up ever so slightly for the year as a whole to an amazing 92%. The results for the airline are impressive when considering the company closed its Munich base.
"In 2018, we expanded our worldwide network to a total of 166 with four new destinations. Last year, the KLM Group (including Transavia Netherlands) welcomed 43 million passengers on board. It’s a great achievement that all of us at KLM, as a whole, can be proud of.” said Pieter Elbers, President and CEO, KLM.
(Images Air France KLM)
