Air France-KLM issued this financial report for the first quarter:

 

Over the first three months of the year, the Group continued to be negatively impacted by travel restrictions as the whole industry:

 Revenue at 2.2 billion euros, down 57% compared to last year

 EBITDA loss at -0.6 billion euros, mitigated due to strict cost control and national partial activity schemes

 Operating result at -1.2 billion euros, down 0.4 billion euros compared to last year

 Net income at -1.5 billion euros, after taking interest charges into account

 Net debt at 12.5 billion euros, up 1.5 billion compared to end of 2020

 At 31 March 2021, the Group has 8.5 billion euros of liquidity and credit lines at disposal

 Early April 2021, first set of balance sheet strengthening measures successfully executed resulting in an increase of €4bn equity and improved cash position by €1bn

OUTLOOK

Due to the stricter lockdown in France until, at least beginning of May, continuation of the lockdown in the Netherlands and travel restrictions worldwide still in place, the Group anticipates the beginning of the second quarter to be similar to the first quarter whereby the customer booking behavior is still short-term oriented.

The key to reduce travel restrictions and reopen borders is a rapid roll-out of wide-scale vaccination. In the US, domestic demand is recovering rapidly due to the speed of the vaccination process.

In this context, the Group expects capacity in Available Seat kilometers circa index 50% for Air France-KLM in the Second quarter 2021 compared to 2019 for the Network passenger activity. During the second half of the second quarter the Group will progressively ramp up capacity given the vaccination deployment in Europe.

For the Third quarter the Group foresees a capacity in Available Seat kilometers index in the range of 55% to 65% compared to 2019 for the Network passenger activity thanks to estimated higher demand.

The Air France-KLM Group continues to work to strengthen its balance sheet. Additional measures of equity and quasi-equity instruments are currently under consideration. Extraordinary resolutions will be presented at the next Annual General Meeting, aiming to give the Board of Directors great flexibility to restore equity.

Transavia: Operating result –120 million euros as impacted by Covid-19 crisis

The First quarter operating result ended -38 million euros lower compared to last year at an operational loss of -120 million euros, as a result of the ongoing Covid-19 crisis with strict border restrictions in Europe and North Africa.

First quarter activity level was only around 20% of last year’s production, with a unit revenue down – 21.6% compared to 2020. Load factor at 57.6% was impacted by travel restrictions imposed. The production level of Transavia France was slightly higher at and index of 26 compared to 2020, thanks to the start of domestic routes.

Transavia plan to grow is still valid, well positioned to capture the leisure traffic recovery foreseen in the coming months towards the end of the summer, being a major opportunity for the Group’s competitiveness gain. The adding of eight Boeing 737-800 aircraft to Transavia France fleet in the first quarter is part of this plan.

OUTLOOK

Due to the stricter lockdown in France until, at least beginning of May, continuation of the lockdown in the Netherlands and travel restrictions worldwide still in place, the Group anticipates a difficult start of the Second quarter whereby the customer booking behavior is still short-term oriented.

The key to reduce travel restrictions and reopen borders is a rapid roll-out of wide-scale vaccination. The vaccination pace in Europe is slower than in the US where the domestic demand recovers quickly thanks to the high speed vaccination process.

In this context the Group expects capacity in Available Seat kilometers circa index 50% for Air France-KLM in the Second quarter 2021 compared to 2019 for the Network passenger activity. During the second half of the second quarter the Group will progressively ramp up capacity given the vaccination deployment in Europe.

For the Third quarter the Group foresees a capacity in Available Seat kilometers between index 55% and 65% compared to 2019 for the Network passenger activity thanks to estimated higher demand.

At 31 March 2021, the Group has a 8.5 billion euros of liquidity and credit lines at disposal. This level can be considered comfortable, given the expected recovery in the summer, despite the cash requirements for 2021 which include:

 Q2 2021 EBITDA expected to be in the same range as EBITDA Q1 2021

 Capex spending inferior at 2.0 billion euros in 2021, but largely funded for fleet investments

 Restructuring cash out at 0.5 billion euros in 2021, part of which is financed by the associated reduction in the wage bill

A first set of capital strengthening measures was successfully executed in April and resulted in an increase in equity of 4 billion euros and cash of 1 billion euros.

The Air France-KLM group continues to work on strengthening its balance sheet. Additional equity and quasi-equity measures are currently under consideration. Extraordinary resolutions will be presented at the next Annual General Meeting, aiming to give the Board of Directors great flexibility to restore equity and initiate the gradual refinancing of state aid and restore leverage ratio.

Top Copyright Photo: Revised AF livery: Air France Boeing 777-328 ER F-GZND (msn 35543) CDG (Manuel Negrerie). Image: 953530.

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