Airline Air France-KLM has ended the worst year in its history with a loss of 7.1 billion euros. The company is drowning in debts. The levels are rising rapidly with each new balance painted in red.

The worst year in society so far was 2009-2010. Then there was a loss of EUR 1.6 billion over the year.

Due to the coronavirus crisis there was much less flying and the flights that left were much less full. The number of passengers plummeted by 67 percent. Freight transport also fell by 21 percent.

Loss increases less rapidly
In the last three months, the loss amounted to 1 billion euros, which is the lowest quarterly loss in 2020. The worst period was the second quarter with a loss of 2.6 billion.

In one year, equity dropped from 2.1 billion to a negative equity of 5.4 billion euros. Banks gave new loans to the company, with guarantees from the Dutch government. The Dutch state also granted a loan of EUR 1 billion.

KLM has also published individual sales figures. The turnover of the Dutch airline halved almost to 5 billion euros. In the first two months of 2020, the airline was still operating reasonably well, but after that, revenue dropped. “KLM’s financial results show how serious the situation is,” says KLM CEO Pieter Elbers.

Support package
“The annual figures of Air France-KLM show the consequences of the crisis again,” says Finance minister Hoekstra. “The Cabinet has always said that it will review what is needed to get KLM through the crisis so that it can continue to play its important role in the public interest.”He says that this is being discussed with the French government, Air France and KLM.

The airline thinks that more flights will be flown this summer, as an increasing proportion of the population has been vaccinated against corona. By 2024, the airline’s capacity is back at the level of before the coronavirus crisis, is the company’s forecast.

Previously, the company received a support package worth 3.4 billion euros from the Dutch government and 7 billion from the French. There is disagreement about the terms of the new aid. In addition, KLM received nearly € 600 million in NOW support, which allowed the staff to continue to pay their salaries.

Recruitment agency workers
KLM announced earlier that nearly 6000 jobs were being cut to overcome the crisis. FNV Luchtvaart complains that the company is now recruiting temporary workers for some positions.

“KLM has abused the coronacrisis the number of jobs to reduce and at the same time, services to buy in,” says Joost van Doesburg, on behalf of the union. “That is antisocial and contrary to the social plan we have agreed on. ”

Pieter Elbers says that the staff of his company thinks otherwise. “You must distinguish between the words of Joost van Doesburg and the KLM staff”, says the KLM top man in the NOS Radio 1 News. “We occasionally look for temporary workers in a number of places for a number of hours. I do not recognize the image that we are anti-social, on the contrary.”