Third-quarter revenues for the Air France-KLM Group nearly
doubled year over year, with demand rising as countries reopened over the
summer, but executives said business travel recovery remained slow.
The group reported €3.8 billion in total revenues for the
quarter, up 89.8 percent year over year. Capacity was up 63.7 percent year over
year and at about two-thirds of the group's capacity in the third quarter of
2019.
Demand on the group's short- and medium-haul routes was
"encouraging" through the quarter, driven largely by leisure travel,
though the group's yield in September recovered to near 2019 levels, which
indicated some recovery in business travel. U.S. point-of-sale demand drove a
"strong increase" in demand on North Atlantic routes, and routes to
Canada also had a "good performance" once border restrictions there
eased.
With restrictions on travel to the U.S. from Europe easing
this month, the group projects its capacity will be between 70 percent and
75 percent of 2019 levels for the fourth quarter.
Air France-KLM on Friday also announced that it will be
setting a new carbon emissions reduction target for 2035, at the midpoint of
its current goal of net zero emissions by 2050. The group has signed a letter
of intent with the Science-Based Targets initiative—an independent reference
organization founded by the Carbon Disclosure Project, the United Nations
Global Compact and the World Wildlife Fund—to validate those targets are in
line with the Paris Agreement, which aims to limit global climate change to
below 2 degrees Celsius of warming.
The group plans to submit its goals to the initiative in the
first half of 2022, "placing our emissions reduction trajectory within a
scientifically indisputable and demanding framework," Air France-KLM Group
CEO Benjamin Smith said in a statement.
Air France-KLM reported a net loss of €192 million for the
third quarter, and improvement of €1.5 billion compared with its loss in the
third quarter of 2020.
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