Rising fuel costs and heavy competition dealt a deep loss to Air France-KLM Group in the first quarter. Passenger revenue rose 1.8 percent year over year to 4.6 billion euros. Traffic rose 1.9 percent as capacity increased 2.3 percent, causing load factor to drop 0.4 percentage points to 86.3 percent. Unit revenue declined both for the medium-haul network, which saw "substantial intra-European industry capacity growth," and for flights to North America, where pricing was competitive, according to the group. CEO Benjamin Smith expects improvements in the summer with "a more benign industry supply outlook," and the group noted that bookings on long-haul routes from May to September were running ahead year over year. Unit revenue on routes to Asia increased year over year in the first quarter, largely thanks to strength in bookings to Japan. Air France-KLM posted a net loss of 320 million euros for the quarter, compared with a loss of 269 million euros in the first quarter of 2018. Fuel costs rose 140 million euros year over year in the quarter.
RELATED: Air France-KLM Q4 earnings