The process of recovery that was already visible in the second quarter continued into the third quarter. This, therefore, marks the first time KLM has closed a quarter with an operating profit since the start of the Covid-19 crisis nineteen months ago.
KLM Group’s operating result in the third quarter of 2021 amounted to a profit of €168 million, compared to a loss of €234 million in 2020 and a profit of €511 million in 2019. Turnover totalled €1.890 billion, compared to €1.144 billion in 2020 and €3.131 billion in 2019.
With the summer holiday period from July through to the end of September, this is traditionally a strong quarter for the airline industry. Borders within Europe gradually opened up for travellers and the Caribbean part of the kingdom was assigned a green or yellow colour code by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Partly as a result of this, KLM welcomed 5.2 million passengers on board last summer, compared to 2.3 million in 2020 and 9.5 million in 2019. Transavia also reflects a positive trend. This shows that recovery has continued across the passenger business. Customers want to travel and the impact of borders opening up is directly visible in the bookings. For next winter, customers will be able to choose from 162 KLM destinations. What’s more, the range of destinations, with more emphasis on leisure, will return to its pre-Covid-19 level.
Cargo continues to perform well. Turnover rose to €467 million, representing an increase of 13%, even though market capacity was up compared to the third quarter of 2020. The maintenance division continued to suffer from the decreasing demand for third-party maintenance. Third-party turnover, therefore, amounted to €77 million, reflecting a decrease of 22%.
Our customers were able to travel more in the third quarter because there were fewer travel restrictions within the EU. Consequently, the market continued to recover. Together with our effective and ambitious network strategy and focus on costs, this contributed towards achieving positive third quarter results. I’m proud of this and would like to thank our customers and KLM colleagues alike. It’s clear that we are climbing out of the doldrums and that further recovery is underway. Marking another important milestone, the US will also open up to European passengers in the fourth quarter. While we’re not there yet, since the road to full recovery will be long and bumpy, we at KLM are ready for it.
This post was published on 29 October 2021 22:03
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