Air France-KLM announces that its revenues will suffer from the sporting event

OLYMPIC GAMES – The long-awaited sporting event will not be beneficial for everyone. The Air France-KLM group, which notably owns the airlines Air France, KLM and Transavia, warned this Monday July 1 that its revenues will suffer from the Paris Olympic Games.

“Air France-KLM anticipates at this stage a negative impact on its unit revenues of between 160 and 180 million euros for the period from June to August”in the middle of high season, the group said in a press release.

The reason ? This reduction in revenue, noted by Air France but also by Transavia, the group’s low-cost airline, is “attributable to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games”. The company notes in particular “a significant behavior of avoiding Paris” from foreign travelers during the summer period.

But Air France-KLM also notes that the French seem to ” postpone their vacation until after the Olympics or consider alternative travel options ». Result : “ Travel volumes from Paris […] are also lower than the usual average for the June-August period”.

Air France-KLM assures, however, that “this event has at this stage no impact on the group’s outlook in terms of capacity”, that is to say the number of seats offered to its customers. The group also claims that “Travel volumes to and from France are expected to normalize after the Olympics, with encouraging demand levels recorded for the end of August and September”.

Significant efforts made to support the Olympic Games

This is a disappointing announcement for the group, which had reported ” promising ticket sales for the summer season » at the end of April, when it presented its first-quarter results. At the same time, Air France, which had said at the time that it hoped to take advantage of the spotlight of the Olympic and Paralympic Games to highlight its services and brand image, made significant efforts during the sporting event, of which it is one of the official partners.

She hired hundreds of seasonal workers and insisted on the care taken in transporting athletes and their equipment, all in the context of a “ summer peak » of attendance on its lines, with up to 125,000 daily passengers. The company plans to transport around 20% of the athletes expected during these sporting competitions and even 35% of those at the Paralympic Games.

At the beginning of June, Air France CEO Anne Rigail had specified that her company would reach this summer “ for the first time since the Covid period the level of activity” of 2019.

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