Air France-KLM Stock Climbs On Narrower Q4 Loss, Positive Outlook

(RTTNews) - Shares of Air France-KLM Group were gaining more than 20 percent in the morning trade in Paris after the airline reported Thursday narrower net loss and significantly higher EBITDA, a key earnings metric, in its fourth quarter amid good growth in passenger traffic, capacity and load factor.

Further, the company projects capacity growth in fiscal 2025, and maintained medium term outlook, expecting increase in margin.

Benjamin Smith, Group CEO, said, "In the fourth quarter of 2024, Air France-KLM delivered a particularly strong finish, concluding a year shaped by both operational and external challenges... In 2025, we will continue to deliver on our strategic roadmap and keep transformation as our number one priority. In this context, we remain confident in achieving our medium-term ambition, with a disciplined approach to capital allocation and cost efficiency."

Looking ahead, for fiscal 2025, the company expects capacity to increase by 4 to 5 percent and unit cost to increase low single digit compared to 2024.

Further, the company reiterated its 2026-2028 Medium term outlook, still expecting operating margin above 8 percent and unit cost reduction.

Air France Group posted an operating margin at 5.1 percent for fiscal 2024.

In its fourth quarter, the French airline's net loss - Group part was 63 million euros, compared to prior year's loss of 256 million euros. Income from current operations was 396 million euros, compared to loss of 56 million euros a year ago.

EBITDA surged 67 percent to 1.003 billion euros from last year's 601 million euros.

Revenues grew 6.4 percent to 7.88 billion euros from last year's 7.41 billion euros. Revenues increased 6.8 percent at constant currency rates.

Group revenues were driven by a favorable business dynamic resulting in an increase in unit revenue of 4.4 percent on a 2.2 percent capacity increase.

In the quarter, Air France-KLM welcomed 23.49 million passengers, 5.1 percent above last year. Capacity in Available Seat Kilometers increased 2.2 percent to 78.76 billion ASKs and traffic grew 4.7 percent to 68.81 billion RPKs. The load factor grew 2.1 points compared to last year to 87.4 percent.

The Group unit revenue per ASK was up 4.4 percent at constant currency compared to last year, driven by strong load factor performance for passenger network and Transavia.

The company noted that cargo benefited from a much better peak season than last year, especially from Asia, with unit revenues per ATK up 20.9 percent against a constant currency.

In Paris, Air France-KLM shares were trading at 10.99 euros, up 20.22 percent.

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