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Air France-KLM said Friday, October 30, that the coronavirus pandemic pushed it deep into the red in the 3rd quarter as international travel restrictions caused passenger numbers to plummet, adding that the situation was expected to remain “challenging” in the final quarter.
The airline group said in a statement it booked a net loss of 1.7 billion euros ($1.9 billion) in the 3 months to September, compared with profit of 363 million euros in the same period a year earlier.
“The continuation of the COVID-19 crisis severely impacted our 3rd quarter results,” Air France-KLM said.
Following the lifting of the lockdown in the spring, Air France-KLM observed “a positive demand recovery trend until mid-August,” the statement said.
But then, “the negative trend reversal for the passenger activity led [our] airlines to adjust downwards the capacity planned for the fall and winter period,” the carrier explained.
And with France now reentering lockdown to try to stem a second wave of virus infections, that would represent “a new difficulty that will weigh on the group’s activities.”
“There is limited visibility on the demand recovery curve as customer booking behavior is much more short-term oriented and also highly dependent on the imposed travel restrictions, especially on the long-haul network.”
Third quarter revenues nosedived to 2.5 billion euros, from 7.6 billion euros a year earlier.
And passenger numbers were down 70% at 8.8 million.
Air France-KLM “anticipates a challenging 4th quarter 2020,” the statement said. – Rappler.com
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