Air France posted a strong commercial performance for March:

1. Passenger Operations
* Capacity: up 7.3% in ASK (available seat-km)
* Traffic: up 6.8% in RPK (revenue passenger-km)
* Load factor: 78.5% (down 0.3 points)

During March, unit revenue should improve both in revenue per ASK (available seat-km) and in revenue per RPK (revenue passenger-km).

Bookings for May and June are on a par with last year`s high levels.

** Long-haul flights
Long-haul traffic grew 9% for a 9.5% increase in capacity. The load factor remained at a very high level of 82.3% (down 0.4 points).
* Capacity on North American routes substantially increased (up 17.3%) and traffic rose 13.8%. The load factor remained at the very high level of 79.9% (down 2.5 points).
* In the Latin American sector, traffic grew by 8.0% for a 15.4% increase in capacity. The load factor stood at 78.8% (down 5.4 points), but March 2000 had benefited from the Jublilee Year.
* On Asian routes, the load factor reached the very high level of 82.5%, up 0.2 points. Capacity rose 3.9% and traffic 4.1%.
* Both capacity and traffic on Africa/Middle East routes grew 2.7%.

The load factor remained stable at 79.7%. Even though traffic on the African network posted very good results, this was offset by the negative impact of the Middle East crisis.

* Traffic on Caribbean/Indian Ocean routes grew 11.1% for a 6.9% increase in capacity. The load factor gained 3.3 points, reaching 87.5%.

** International medium-haul flights

Traffic grew 2.5% for a 4.1% increase in capacity. The load factor dropped 1 point to 67%.
Traffic from April 2000 to March 2001: Operations for the 4th quarter of fiscal 2000-01 held up well, with a 0.5-point increase in the load factor. Traffic grew 9.1% for the whole year for a 6.3% increase in capacity. The load factor gained 2 points reaching 78.1%, an upward trend for the sixth consecutive year. All networks contributed to the very good commercial performance, with a 2.1-point improvement in the long-haul load factor, a 1.6-point improvement in the international medium-haul load factor and an improvement of 1 point in the domestic load factor.

2. Cargo Operations

In March, cargo traffic dropped 2.5% for a 0.9% decrease in capacity. The load factor lost 1.1 points and stood at 68.6%. Yield improved, despite the suspension of the fuel surcharge decided last November. Over the full year, capacity and traffic grew 2.8%. The load factor remained stable at 66.5%, and yield showed strong growth.

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