Airline KLM welcomed a record number of 35.1 million passengers on board its aircraft last year. There was an annual growth of 2.7 percent. KLM boss Pieter Elbers spoke of a “great milestone”, also pointing to the passenger record for the KLM Group, which also includes the Dutch branch of Transavia.
According to Elbers, KLM’s position is stronger than a year ago. In the past year, six new destinations were added to a total of 171 KLM destinations from Schiphol. KLM aircraft were on average 89.4 percent full, which meant a slight increase in capacity utilization.
In terms of cargo, the volume decline of the past months continued. All in all, freight transport fell by 3.5 percent last year, partly as a result of the impact of the Sino-US trade war and the declining economic growth worldwide, which is also affecting trade.
Transavia transported 9.2 million travelers last year. On an annual basis there was a growth of 4.4 percent. Including the French Transavia branch, it involved nearly 16.6 million passengers, bringing the growth to 4.8 percent.
Air France accounted for 52.5 million travelers in 2019. The passenger flow at the French airline increased by 2.1 percent. Air France-KLM as a whole accounted for 87.6 million travelers in 2019. In the last month of the year, 6.9 million people checked in with the airlines of the group. In December there was annual growth of 1.4 percent. KLM was good for a growth of 3.1 percent that month.
Maurice Esma, a co-founder of EconomicInform is a freelance journalist with the expertise in international finance and corporate rights. The author can be reached by email maurice.eisma@economicinform.com
