Source: Xinhua Author: 11/09/2009
Subject Concerned: Airlines Cargo
Passenger traffic with Europe's leading airline group, Air France-KLM, fell for the 10th straight month with a 4.1 percent drop in October, the Paris-based company announced on Nov. 9 in its monthly traffic statistics.
As the group cut its transportation capacity by 5.6 percent on a year-on-year basis in October, more than the decline in passenger business, the group was able to gain a 1.3 percent improvement in passenger load factor, or the proportion of seats sold, to 82.5 percent.
Raw passenger numbers dropped to 6.3 million in October, down 5.3 percent compared with the same period last year.
Over the first 10 months this year, the airlines' busiest month was July, with 6.9 million passengers carried, and the quietest was February, with 4.8 million.
The company also saw a 19.1 percent decline in cargo business in October, even worse than the 17.2 percent loss in September.
Since the breakout of the global financial crisis last year, the worldwide civil and freight aviation traffic market has suffered decreased demand.
The civil aviation market would see a decline of 3 percent, while the freight market would witness a drop of 5 percent for the year, according to a previous estimation by the United States-based International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).