NOVEMBER 2004 TRAFFIC
Passenger traffic up 4.2%
Load factor at 75.7% (down 0.4 points)

Passenger operations
In November, first month of the winter schedule, the Air France-KLM group posted a satisfactory performance. Activity remained strong although, due to calendar effects, the increase in traffic (up 4.2%) was slightly lower than the increase in capacity (up 4.8%). Load factor stood at 75.7% (down 0.4 points). The Group carried over 5 million passengers in November (up 3.2%).

North and South America continued to post a positive performance with a 1.2-point improvement in load factor (80.8%) for a 2.4% increase in capacity. In Asia, capacity increased by 13.6% notably due to the launch of the non-stop Manila flight (5 weekly frequencies) from Amsterdam and capacity expansion to China from both Paris and Amsterdam. Although lower than the development in capacity, activity remained strong with a 9.5% increase in traffic. The load factor stood at the good level of 80.0% (down 3.0 points). Traffic continued to post sustained growth (up 5.5%) on the Africa & Middle-East network. However, strong capacity expansion (up 8.4%) especially on Middle-East, weighted on the load factor which declined by 2.0 points to 73.1%. On the Caribbean & Indian Ocean sector, the load factor gained 2.0 points to 84.5% as traffic declined by 3.2% for a 5.5% decrease in capacity.

On the medium-haul network, capacity was up 4.3% and traffic up 3.7%. The load factor stood at 62.8% (down 0.4 points).

The performance per airline was as follows:

Air France’s traffic increased by 2.4% on 3.1% higher capacity. The load factor stood at 74.0% (down 0.5 points).
KLM’s traffic was up 7.3% for a 7.8% increase in capacity. The load factor stood at 78.5% (down 0.3 points).
The differences of capacity growth between Air France and KLM is due to a basis effect: in November 2003, KLM had decreased its capacity by 5.0% compared to November 2002 while Air France had increased its capacity by 4.1%.

Cargo operations
The cargo activity of the Air France-KLM group remained strong in November with a 6.2% increase in traffic for a 5.8% growth of capacity. The cargo load factor improved slightly to 72.8% (up 0.3 points).

Air France’s cargo traffic was up 5.2% on 3.4% higher capacity. The load factor reached 68.3% (up 1.1 points).
KLM’s cargo traffic increased by 7.6% while capacity grew by 9.5%. The load factor stood at 79.3% (down 1.4 points).