The airline posted a strong sales performance in January :

1. Passenger operations

* 8.5% increase in capacity in ASK (available seat-km)
* 10.9% increase in traffic in RPK (revenue passenger-km)
* Load factor up 1.6 points to 73.3%.
We remind you that the first few days of January 2000 had been affected by the changeover to the new Millennium.

** Long-haul flights
Traffic (up 12.2%) rose faster than capacity (up 10.2%). The load factor grew 1.4 points to 77.6%.
* North Atlantic routes showed significant growth with a 19.4% increase in traffic and a 17.1% increase in capacity. The load factor reached 69.1%, up 1.3 points.
* Traffic on Latin American routes rose 12.7% for a 13.3% increase in capacity. The load factor remained stable at 78.1% (down 0.4 points).
* In Asia, the load factor increased by 0.9 points to 77.7% with a 10.6% increase in traffic and a 9.3% increase in capacity.
* Traffic on the Caribbean and Indian Ocean network rose10.4% against a 7.3% increase in capacity. The load factor gained 2.4 points to reach 86.5%.
* Capacity on Africa/Middle Eastern routes remained stable (down 0.6%) and traffic grew 5.1%. The load factor rose 4.4 points to 79.5%.
** International medium-haul flights
Air France posted an 11.2% increase in traffic for a 5.9% increase in capacity. The load factor gained 2.8 points, now reaching 59.5%.

* Domestic medium-haul flights
Traffic rose 1.1% on domestic routes for a 1.9% increase in capacity. The load factor dropped 0.5 points to 63%.
2. Cargo operations
Cargo operations increased by 1.6% for a 3.7% rise in capacity. The load factor dropped 1.4 points to 63.2%.

3. New developments
Air France signed an agreement with the Italian airline Gandalf on 5 February 2001, under which the two airlines will codeshare on flights between Italy, France, Germany and Spain and on Italian domestic routes. With 500 codeshared flights a week, Gandalf hopes to develop traffic to over 300,000 passengers in 2001. This agreement will be effective as from 25 March 2001.

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