Protests hit Air France KLM, overshadowing Dutch traffic rise

Air France KLM said anti-government protests in France had hit its revenue, taking the shine off a rise in its overall December passenger traffic figures and knocking its shares. Analysts said the latest passenger data showed that the Dutch KLM airline was again doing better than Air France, with KLM and the smaller Transavia division flying fuller planes. “The rise in passenger numbers was essentially led by KLM and Transavia, whereas the performance at Air France was more flat,” said Gregoire Laverne of Roche Brune Asset Management. Air France KLM said the “yellow vest” protests, which have been marred by violence and disrupted shopping areas and the transport network, were estimated to have had a negative revenue impact of around E15m. A spokeswoman for Air France KLM said it had arrived at the estimate by taking into account last minute cancellations of bookings that had occurred as a result of the protests, which started in mid-November but intensified and grew more violent over the course of December. The airline said that it carried around 7.7m passengers in December, up 3.6% from a year earlier, while for the whole of 2018 it flew around 101m passengers, 2.8% higher than the previous year.<br/>