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Air France-KLM posted a net loss of €505 million in its fiscal fourth quarter. Revenue dropped 12 percent for the quarter ended March 31 to €5 billion.

Published: 21 May 2009

Air France-KLM posted a net loss of €505 million in its fiscal fourth quarter. Revenue dropped 12 percent for the quarter ended March 31 to €5 billion.

The loss was smaller than the loss of €534 million reported in the same quarter a year earlier.

Chief Executive Pierre-Henri Gourgeon gave no forecast for the current fiscal year. But he said the Franco-Dutch airline has in recent weeks seen “signs of a stabilisation in our operating environment” after a plunge in passenger and cargo traffic over recent months.

It reported an operating loss for the year to the end of March of €129m ($176m) against an operating profit of €1.41bn a year earlier. Turnover was €23.97bn compared with €24.1bn a year ago. It fell to a net loss of €814m, including mark-to-market fuel hedging losses, from a net profit of €756m a year earlier.

Air France-KLM is expecting to shed 3,000 jobs in its current financial year, in a bid to further cut costs. The cuts come in addition to 2,700 posts eliminated in the fiscal year to 31 March 2009.

It is reducing its initially planned capital investment from €2.9bn to €1.4bn and is seeking to cut costs by a further €600m.

The group said it had cut 4.4 percent of its seat capacity going into the summer.

It revised its fleet investment plans downwards and said it would fly nine fewer aircraft than originally planned in 2009 and 13 fewer in 2010.