Air France -KLM's first-quarter sales have fallen sharply, calling into question the airline's target for a 2009/10 operating loss of US$181.5 million, French newspaper La Tribune reported.
"The revenue loss will widen in the first quarter of the 2009/10 fiscal year," La Tribune quoted an Air France-KLM source as saying.
Sales have fallen nearly 20 percent since April as the global financial hit business travel, La Tribune said.
Several sources cited an 18 percent drop in passenger traffic and a 35-38 percent fall in cargo activity in May, adding that June was also "bad" and the level of bookings until September "disappointing," La Tribune said.
No one at Air France was immediately available to comment.
Sales at the Franco-Dutch airline fell 12.2 percent in the final quarter of the 2008/09 fiscal year ended March 31.
Citing an internal document, La Tribune said: "We (Air France-KLM) will need to wait until the 2011/12 fiscal year to find profitable growth again."
Faced with difficult economic conditions, the airline could cut as many as 4,480 jobs by 2011 instead of 2,467 initially expected -- a large part of which will be carried out through attrition.
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