Amid Travel Chaos and Passenger Inconvenience , Air France-KLM and IAG booked profits of 324 million and 293 million euros Respectively !

For the first time since the start of the coronavirus pandemic , British Airways’ owner International Consolidated Airlines Group (IAG) , KLM Royal Dutch Airlines and Air France-KLM group have returned to profit.

Bothersome part is , the profits are happening , when passengers are unhappy — they are greatly inconvenienced by major operational disruptions during last three months.

The IAG group said , it made an operating profit of 293 million euros (£245 million) between April and June , compared with a 967 million euro (£810 million) loss during the same period last year.

At the same time , the Air France-KLM group has reported a quarterly net income of 324 million euros ($330.4 million) compared with a loss of EUR1.49 billion in the year-earlier period. The company's closely-watched operating result was positive at EUR386 million compared with an operating loss of EUR753 million in last year's second quarter.

Both the Groups are aware of Passenger Inconvenience !

While IAG said , the “challenging operational environment at Heathrow” meant British Airways’ capacity was limited to 69.1% of pre-pandemic levels between April and June ,  Air France-KLM Chief Executive Benjamin Smith believed , "While Air France-KLM had prepared for close to prepandemic demand levels, our airlines are not immune to the major operational challenges taking place around the world,"

KLM also believes , the sharp rise in passenger numbers, long queues at Schiphol security and shortages of KLM staff put heavy pressure on operations, especially in the months of May and June . It is a very unpleasant situation for both our customers and our employees.

KLM says, it was forced to cancel flights and impose a limit on ticket sales . The positive effects of these measures are becoming visible. Operations are manageable again, but unfortunately we have not yet returned to the standard of service that customers have come to expect from us.

IAG chief executive Luis Gallego said :

“In the second quarter we returned to profit for the first time since the start of the pandemic following a strong recovery in demand across all our airlines.

KLM President & CEO Marjan Rintel said :

Despite the enormous operational challenges posed by the recovery of the airline industry, millions of customers once again chose to fly with KLM and Transavia over the past six months. I am very grateful to them for that. At the same time, however, our operations are struggling with queues at Schiphol’s security checks, labour shortages and heavy workloads. We are doing our best to come up with measures that will alleviate the pressure.

In my initial meetings with members of our organisation, I saw how KLM employees are working hard, day-in and day-out, to deliver the standard of quality that customers have come to expect from us. They are doing this under very difficult circumstances at Schiphol and other airports. I am proud of all of them for their dedication and commitment.

While the figures are good, we must keep a tight rein on structural costs. That is vital to KLM’s financial health and will enable us to continue investing in sustainability and our product for customers.

Talking about IAG and British Airways flight disrutions , On July 12th , Heathrow introduced a cap of 100,000 daily departing passengers until September 11 due to a shortage of staff in ground handling and elsewhere, leading to more flights being cancelled.

British Airways , that has cancelled tens of thousands of flights this summer, plans to increase its capacity to around 75% between July and October.

IAG’s plans for overall passenger capacity are around 80% between July and October, and 85% for the final quarter of the year.

KLM Group said to have flown 7.2 million passengers in the second quarter . The leisure business performed strongly, with Transavia recording higher revenues than in 2019. Cargo’s contribution towards the results remained substantial . Engineering & Maintenance (E&M) performed on par with last year and maintained its focus on cost control.

The Air France-KLM group said it expects network capacity between 80% and 85% in the third quarter and 85% to 95% in the fourth , while operating result should be "significantly positive" in the third quarter. It expects to book a positive operating result in 2022 for the first time since 2019.

When we see the performance of the Dutch carrier , operating profits came to €266 million in the first half of 2022 on revenues amounting to €4.685 billion. KLM did receive €138 million under the NOW scheme in the first quarter. Even without this support, it was a significant improvement in results compared to the same period in 2021, when the Covid-19 pandemic was at its height. KLM recorded revenues of €2.137 billion at that time, representing an operational loss of €522 million.

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