Air France-KLM

Infobox Company
company_name = Air France-KLM S.A.
company_
company_type = Public (Euronext|AF, Euronext3|AFA)
foundation = 2004 (by merger of Air France, founded in 1933 and KLM founded in 1919)
location = Charles de Gaulle International Airport, Roissy, France
key_people = Jean-Cyril Spinetta (Chairman of the board and CEO), Leo van Wijk (Vice-Chairman), Pierre-Henri Gourgeon (deputy CEO)
industry = Airline industry
products = Passenger flights (Air France, KLM, Brit Air, Transavia.com, etc.)
Cargo activity (European Cargo House)
Aircraft maintenance
Catering (Servair, etc.)
revenue = €24.12 billion (year to Mar 2008)cite web |url=http://www.airfranceklm-finance.com/sysmodules/RBS_fichier/admin/forcedownload.php?id=932 |title=Consolidated financial statements 2007-08 |accessdate=2008-06-14 |publisher=Air France-KLM]
operating_income = profit €1.272 billion (yr - Mar 08)
net_income = profit €748 million (yr - Mar 08)
num_employees = 104,700 (2008)
homepage = [http://www.airfranceklm-finance.com/ airfranceklm-finance.com]

Air France-KLM (Euronext|AF, Euronext3|AFA), is a European airline holding company incorporated under French law with its headquarters at Roissy-Charles de Gaulle Airport near Paris, France.

It is the largest airline company in the world in terms of total operating revenues, and the third largest in the world in terms of passenger-kilometres and passenger fleet size.

The company's CEO is Jean-Cyril Spinetta.

Air France-KLM is member of the SkyTeam airline alliance. They offer a frequent flyer program called Flying Blue. The company's namesake airlines rely on two major hubs: Roissy-Charles de Gaulle International Airport, near Paris, and Schiphol Airport, near Amsterdam.

Financial details

In the fiscal year ending March 31, 2008, the total operating revenues of Air France-KLM amounted to €24.114 billion , with a net profit of €748 million (US$1.18 billion), a net profit decrease of 16 percent compared to the previous year.

Air France-KLM is one of the most profitable companies in Europe, transporting 74,8 millions passengers a year.

Private shareholders own 81.4 percent of the company, with 37 percent held by former Air France shareholders and 21 percent held by former KLM shareholders. The French government owns the remaining 18.6 percent.

In June 2008, Air France-KLM agreed to pay $350 million to settle charges of cargo price fixing in an investigation conducted by the U.S. Justice Department. Cathay Pacific Airways, Martinair Holland, and SAS Cargo Group also agreed to fines, bringing the total to $504 million [ [http://www.npr.org/newsinbrief/index.html NPR: NPR News In Brief ] ] .

ubsidiaries and minor interests

Wholly-owned subsidiaries of Air France-KLM include:

*flagicon|France Air France (including Régional and Brit Air)
*flagicon|Netherlands KLM (including KLM Cityhopper)
*flagicon|Netherlands Transavia.com (operating out of Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and Eindhoven, and Orly in Paris." [http://www.atwonline.com/news/story.html?storyID=7115 Air France KLM close to launching new leisure carrier] ." Buyck, C. "Air Transport World". November 20, 2006] In partnership with Transavia, Air France has launched a new charter/low-cost subsidiary be based at Paris - Orly Airport and had begun operations in spring 2007 with leisure route services in the Mediterranean and North Africa. Transavia has a 40 percent stake and Air France has a 60 percent stake.
*flagicon|Ireland CityJet
*flagicon|Belgium VLM Airlines On December 24, 2007, Air France-KLM announced that they had signed an agreement for a full takeover of VLM airlines to supplement CityJet activities. [ [http://www.flyvlm.com/emc.asp?pageId=1184 Message on the VLM website announcing the takeover - access date 24 Dec 2007] ]

Air France-KLM also owns half of Martinair and has minority interests in Kenya Airways (26 percent), CCM Airlines (12 percent) and Alitalia (2 percent).

In a recent opening for a majority takeover of the loss-generating Alitalia, Air France-KLM was one of three bidders, and was favoured by the board of Alitalia. [ [http://edition.cnn.com/2007/BUSINESS/12/21/alitalia.sale.ap/index.html CNN coverage AlItalia takeover] ] . However, on 2nd April 2008, it was reported that negotiations have been abandoned [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7326320.stm] BBC news report] . Air France - KLM, has announced it is interested in purchasing Austrian Airlines.

Fleet

The fleet of Air France-KLM includes the fleets of its subsidiaries, the fleet of Air France (255), and the fleet of KLM (115). Furthermore the fleets of Régional (64), Brit Air (43), KLM Cityhopper (55), CityJet (23), VLM Airlines (19) and Transavia.com (29) are fully part of the company. The total number of planes in the fleet is 603 as of August, 2008, up from the March 2005Fact|date=March 2008 fleet size of 554.

History

Air France-KLM was created by the mutually-agreed merger between Air France and Netherlands-based KLM on May 5, 2004.

As a result of the deal, the French government's share of Air France was reduced from 54.4 percent (of the former Air France) to 44 percent (of the combined airline). Its share was subsequently reduced to 25 percent, and later to 18.6 percent.

At the time of the merger in May 2004, Air France and KLM combined offered flights to 225 destinations in the world. In the year ending March 21, 2003, the two companies combined transported 66.3 million passengers.

In October 2005, Air France Cargo and KLM Cargo, the two freight subsidiaries of the group, announced a merge of their commercial activities. The Joint Cargo Management Team now operates the organisation worldwide from the Netherlands.

References

External links

* [http://www.airfranceklm-finance.com/EN/ Air France-KLM Financial page]
* [http://biz.yahoo.com/ic/132/132748.html Air France-KLM Group Company profile] from Yahoo!

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