Air France-KLM expects 60-65% summer capacity amid long-haul uncertainty

Air France-KLM is seeing demand return for intra-European travel this summer amid the unlocking of travel restrictions across the region, but uncertainty persists for the group’s key long-haul operations. The European airline group’s CE Ben Smith said that Air France-KLM expects to have “healthy levels of capacity this summer in Europe, as well as domestic France”, which should see it achieve 60-65% of 2019 levels overall in the third quarter. Smith is also “very hopeful” that the US government will open its borders to non-citizens soon, following the recent decision of the French government to allow travellers from that country with relatively light-touch restrictions. “We’re seeing very strong bookings coming out of the United States into Europe, we’re seeing strong bookings from our home markets in Europe to Greece, to Italy, to Spain and to Portugal,” Smith states, adding: “[For] a lot of holiday routes, we’ve added incremental flying over and above what we operated in 2019.” He also notes “huge volumes” travelling to French overseas territories, and that the group’s low-cost unit Transavia is planning to operate capacity “in excess of what we operated in 2019”. Smith says he is “pleasantly surprised how quickly leisure demand and visiting friends and family demand have come back, and I do believe that business traffic will return and will return quite strongly”.<br/>