Air France-KLM has today beaten core profit expectations for 2021 due to a recovery in transatlantic travel in the fourth quarter and said it had started to see a pickup in bookings this quarter as Omicron restrictions start to ease in Europe.
The Franco-Dutch airline group's earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) came in at €745m for the year.
This was better than a Refinitiv poll of analysts who had pegged the figure at €342.9ms, and the company's own guidance of a "slightly" positive figure.
It was the second quarter of core profit in a row since the outbreak of the pandemic.
Overall, the company posted a net loss of €3.29 billion. Revenue of €14.32 billion outpaced the average estimate in a Refinitiv poll of €13.97 billion.
Steven Zaat, the company's chief financial officer, said the airline increased capacity on long-haul in the fourth quarter despite a resurgence of coronavirus cases due to the Omicron variant, which hurt short and medium-haul travel in Europe.
In October, the group had guided for fourth quarter total capacity of 70%-75%, and ended the period at 72% of 2019 levels.
For the first quarter of this year, the company forecasts EBITDA to break even.
The available seat kilometres for the group's network passenger activity is seen at 73%-78% of 2019 levels, with the quarter impacted by the Omicron variant and a slowdown of business travel as companies still predominantly exercise a work-from-home model.
Since last week, however, Zaat said bookings have started to catch up, including the summer period, as air travel is becoming less restricted.
The group, which in 2020 received €10.4 billion in loans backed by France and the Netherlands - its two biggest shareholders, said it still planned to raise equity via capital increase or other instruments by up to €4 billion.
It has already redeemed €500m of the French state loan.
