Solid June growth results for European airlines

European airlines have beaten the economic gloom to post strong passenger growth figures for the first half of 2008.

Air France-KLM yesterday revealed a 2.6 per cent rise in its passenger numbers for the whole of June.

This brings the overall passenger growth to 3.7 per cent during the first half of 2008 for the Franco-Dutch airline.

However, the airline's load factor - which is a measure of how well operators manage to fill their planes - fell to 81.5 per cent during June, which was down by 1.2 per cent.

Its average load factor for the period of April to June stood at 80.3 per cent, which was down by 1.1 per cent on previous results.

Although in a statement, the airline pointed to growth in premium passengers as increasing its overall yield-per-seat.

Passenger capacity was up by 4.1 per cent for June but the operator was cautious to factor in higher oil prices.

"Air France-KLM has adjusted its capacity growth forecasts and now foresees a rise of some two per cent for the winter 2008 programme and of a similar level for the summer 2009 programme," the statement said.

Elsewhere, low-cost carrier easyJet also reported a healthy 19.5 per cent rise in its passenger traffic for June.

This was almost matched by a 19 per cent rise in traffic posted at Europe's largest low-cost operator, Ryanair.

However, results were not so positive for British Airways, which showed a 3.7 per cent fall in both premium and economy traffic for June.

Airline News posted on 08 July 2008

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Solid June growth results for European airlines

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