Overall Traffic: In May, overall capacity was 7% lower than last year, which is consistent with KLMå‘s previously announced gradual capacity increase for the summer season. As traffic was down by 4%, overall load factor improved by 2.6 percentage points to 76.4%.

Passenger Traffic: Passenger traffic in the month was 7% lower than last year with more or less corresponding declines in both Business Class and Tourist Class traffic. Capacity was 9% lower, resulting in a load factor improvement of 1.3 percentage points to 77.2%.

Traffic on Europe, Africa and India routes developed favorably, reporting results well above last year’s levels. KLM`s European routes benefited from targeted and effective commercial action. Traffic in the Asia Pacific route area developed positively and was close to last year’s levels. The temporary re-allocation of capacity in the KLM/NW Joint Venture once again impacted KLM`s traffic and capacity on the North Atlantic. Traffic in this route area was down by 26%, whereas capacity was down by 28%. 

The decline in Business Class traffic was mainly due to lower Business Class capacity, which was, among other factors, the result of the European fleet reconfiguration.

Cargo Traffic: While capacity was 6% lower than in May last year, cargo traffic was 1% higher. Consequently, cargo load factor increased by 4.7 percentage points to 69.6%. Lower traffic on North Atlantic routes was more than compensated by higher traffic on African and inbound Asia/Pacific routes.

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