Air France KLM Martinair Cargo (AFKLMP) saw its revenues decline in 2024 despite cargo traffic and volumes improving due to limited exposure to the fast-growing Asia market.
The cargo division reported a 3.9% decline in full-year revenues to €722m, while cargo volumes improved by 4.1% to 911,000 tons and cargo traffic was up 4.2% to 6.8bn revenue ton kms.
The cargo load factor improved by 1.1 percentage points to 47.7%, capacity increased by 1.8% and revenues per available ton km slipped 2.6% to €13.92 cents.
Air France KLM Group said that overall market grew rapidly last year out of Asia, but its limited presence in the region limited its ability to benefit from the development.
However, as the year progressed, the carrier was able to shift freighter capacity to the market. In September, KLM shifted one of its freight flights to Hong Kong after an absence of nine years.
In its third-quarter results, the carrier said it would add further capacity to the Asia Pacific market.
Performance during the year was also affected by the troubled roll out of a new IT system.
“Growth was mainly driven by e-commerce, combined with relatively tight capacity. Geopolitical tensions around the Red Sea and ocean shipping disruptions further elevated demand, particularly in Asia.
“The Group was limited able to benefit in the first half year from this tailwind due to relatively low capacity on Asia and payload restrictions due to the Russian airspace closure.”
The division’s move to add capacity to the Asia Pacific market helped improve performance as the year progressed.
In the fourth quarter, revenues improved by 10.9%, volumes were up by 6.2% and revenues per available ton km improved by 20.4%.
Overall revenue performance for the year lagged behind the 10% increase registered behind Lufthansa’s cargo division and the 6.7% improvement from IAG Cargo.
AFKLMP has this year continued to add freighter capacity to the Asia Pacific market bysuspending freighter flights to Harare in Zimbabwe.