by Federica Mileo

(Reuters) – Air France-KLM reported better-than-expected first-quarter results and strong cash flow on Friday, driven by a rebound in global travel demand and strong ticket sales plane for the summer period.

The airline reported a turnover for the January-March period up 42% over one year to 6.33 billion euros, slightly above the consensus made by the company which amounted to 6.30 billion euros.

Despite high inflation and uncertainty on the economic horizon, the airline sector is enjoying a solid post-COVID health crisis rebound, with rising demand seen from airlines and operators. airport.

Air France-KLM said it was not feeling the impact of the rising cost of living, citing more than 1.5 billion euros in ticket sales in the first quarter and solid demand across the country. its network.

The group has however revised its capacity forecast for the whole year downwards, to around 95%, against a range between 95% and 100% previously, a decision explained by the shortage of personnel, in particular pilots. , and not by any weakness in demand.

Since last year, strikes and labor shortages have forced European airlines to cancel thousands of flights to avoid massive queues at airports.

For Air France-KLM, the impact of strikes by French air traffic controllers was minimal, the group said, citing a loss in millions of euros which it described as less than the impact of previous strikes.

ADP said last month that it had lost around 470,000 passengers in the first quarter due to strikes carried out as part of the national mobilization against the pension reform in France.

Air France-KLM’s low-cost subsidiary, Transavia, saw its operating profit for the period January-March affected by strikes in France and the reduction of flights in the Netherlands, as well as rising fuel prices.

For the entire Franco-Dutch group, the operating loss was reduced in the first quarter, to 304 million euros, an amount however higher than that anticipated on average by analysts (282 million euros).

(Report Federica Mileo; Jean Terzian, editing by Kate Entringer)

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