On February 18th, Air France KLM group released its 2020 financial results showing that the crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic has had a sever impact on the group’s operating results. In 2020, Air France KLM transported only 34 million passengers (down 67% compared to 2019). Travel restrictions and slow bookings turned those financial results in a operating loss of €4.5 billion and a huge net loss of €7.1 billion.
The Board of Directors of Air France-KLM, chaired by Ms. Anne-Marie Couderc, met on February 17th to approve the financial statements for the Full Year 2020.
“2020 tested the Air France-KLM Group with the most severe crisis ever experienced by the air transport industry. I would like to thank our employees for their dedication and tremendous flexibility during this period, which has allowed us to remain resilient despite an unprecedented drop in traffic,” the group’s CEO, Benjamin Smith said.
“Since the very beginning of the crisis, we set the highest standards of health and safety for our customers and our employees, all while being able to seize Cargo opportunities and continuously adapting our flight schedules in the face of ever-changing travel restrictions,” added Benjamin Smith. “Thanks to the French and Dutch state support and this agile way of working, we were able to drastically reduce our costs, protect our cash, and continue the execution of major transformation plans within our airlines, involving the efforts of all employees. In the coming months, we will continue to strengthen the Group’s core, improving its economic and environmental performance, so that Air France-KLM will be in a position to fully leverage all opportunities when the industry starts to recover.”
The leadership of the Air France-KLM group looks forward to a brighter 2021 with the hopes of an upturn in traffic as soon as vaccination is deployed on a large scale and borders once again reopen.
