KLM Royal Dutch Airlines announces April traffic results

Passenger business In April 2009, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines recorded a 3.4% reduction in capacity with a 2.8% decline in traffic. The load factor stood at the high level of 80.5%, up 0.6 points. The group carried 6.2 million passengers (-3.7%). This improvement in activity was not, however, accompanied by any recovery in unit revenues. 
-  On the Americas network traffic declined by 1.8% with capacity down by 5.1%. The load factor gained 2.8 points to 85.4%.
-  On the Asia network the significant reduction in capacity (-5.6%) did not match the decline in traffic
(-7.2%). The load factor fell by 1.6 points to 86.0%.
-  The Africa and Middle East network recorded good activity levels with traffic up by 3.3% and capacity by 4.5%. The load factor declined 0.9 points to 78.8%.
-  Traffic on the Caribbean and Indian Ocean network was down by 3.3% with a 5.2% reduction in capacity, giving a load factor up by 1.6 points to 80.6%.
- On the European network, the decline in capacity (-2.9%) was in line with that of demand (-2.7%). The load factor was therefore slightly up at 70.3% (+0.2pts).
 
Cargo business
Since January 1, 2009 the group has consolidated the cargo activity of Martinair. Including Martinair, traffic in April 2009 declined by 6.4% with a 2.9% increase in capacity. The load factor therefore dropped by 6.1 points to 61.4%. Excluding Martinair traffic and capacity declined by 22.7% and 13.8% respectively, leading to a 7.0 point fall in the load factor to 60.5%.

Source: Transportweekly