Turismo
AIR FRANCE-KLM : FIRST QUARTER 2019 RESULTS
3 May 2019
FIRST QUARTER 2019
OUTLOOK 2019
Benjamin Smith, Air France-KLM Group CEO said: “As anticipated, the first quarter has been challenging for the European airline industry including the Air France-KLM Group, as substantial industry capacity growth in the off-peak business period led to unit revenue pressure. In this context, the Group achieved further improvement in unit cost while reaping the benefits of its efforts to strengthen its positioning, as evidenced by the first signs of progress in operational performance at Air France, notably in term of “Net Promoter Score” and punctuality. These elements, together with a more benign industry supply outlook for the summer, lead us to expect improving trends in the rest of the year and to confirm our full-year guidance. We aim to have a capital market day planned in November 2019 to further outline the Group strategic directions.”
First quarter 2019 business review
Network: Operating result impacted by unit revenue pressure and fuel bill increase
First quarter 2019 combined Passenger and Cargo revenues increased by 1.0% at constant currency to 5.2 billion euros, for a capacity growth of 2.3%. The operating result amounted to -279 million euros, a 146 million euros decrease at constant currency compared to last year, mostly due to unit revenue pressure and fuel bill increase as anticipated.
Passenger network: Resilient unit revenues for long-haul and premium and decline in short- and medium-haul
First quarter 2019 capacity increased by 2.3%, mainly driven by the South American, North Atlantic and Asian networks with respective growth of 9.8%, 5.3% and 1.8%.
The passenger network experienced a supply – demand imbalance putting pressure on unit revenues. Revenue management anticipated to price competitive trends in the market and managed to contain impact on unit revenues to -1.6% at constant currency compared to last year.
Cargo network: Unit revenues impacted by slowdown of air freight market
A slowdown of volumes in the first quarter is visible in the whole air freight market, due to economic slowdown, political uncertainties and trade disputes. This has put pressure on freight rates, resulting in a unit revenue development of -4.0% at constant currency. Several network rationalization measures have been implemented during the quarter to counterbalance the negative trend. A slight capacity increase has been offset by this unit revenue decrease, resulting in a decline of revenues by 1.3% at constant currency.
Transavia: Strong capacity growth, but unit revenue decline primarily explained by Easter shift
First quarter 2019 saw the launch of several new routes and a strong capacity growth of 11.4%. Unit revenues decreased by 3.5% compared to last year, primarily explained by Easter shift and an increase of stage length of the route network. The unit cost improved with -0.8% and -1.7% at constant fuel and currency.
The first quarter 2019 operating result stood at -71 million euros, 13 million euros lower compared to last year.
Maintenance: Strong third party revenue growth and margin improvement
Maintenance revenues increased compared to last year with third-party revenues up by 9.9% at constant currency, a continuation of the growth trend realized by the inflow of new contracts. The Maintenance order book stood at 11.5 billion dollars at 31 March 2019, an increase of 0.1 billion dollars compared to 31 December 2018.
The operating margin expressed as a percentage of total revenues stood at 4.0%, an increase of 1.3 point at constant currency compared to last year, explained by the focus on margin quality in both engine and component businesses.
Air France-KLM Group: Unit cost improvement more than offset by unit revenue, fuel and currency headwinds
In the first quarter 2019, the Air France-KLM Group posted an operating result of -303 million euros, down 185 million euros compared to last year, which was impacted by the Air France strike for -75 million euros.
The unit revenue at constant currency of -2.2% compared to last year had a negative impact of 115 million euros on the operating result.
The fuel bill including hedging amounted to 1,201 million euros for first quarter 2019, up 140 million euros, of which 44 million euros is explained by an increase in the fuel price and a volume effect of 34 million euros for the capacity increase compared to last year. The result of the fuel hedges has been a gain of 35 million euros.
Currencies had a positive 65 million euro impact on revenues and a negative 108 million euro effect on costs including currency hedging. The net impact of currencies thus amounted to a negative 43 million euros for first quarter 2019.
Unit costs in line with full year guidance
On a constant currency and fuel price basis, unit costs were down -0.4% in the first quarter 2019, driven in particular by the decrease in customer compensations compared to first quarter 2018 that was marked by the strikes in Air France
However this was partly offset by KLM unit cost which were impacted by a 1.3% lower than planned capacity due to weather and technical reasons.
Net employee costs were up 6.4% in the quarter compared to last year, explained by additional hirings for the capacity growth, the impact of the implemented wage agreements for Air France and KLM staff and the last year strike effect.
Compared to last year, the average number of FTEs increased by 1,050, including +450 Pilots and +50 Cabin Crew in response to the capacity growth. However, productivity measured in ASK per FTE increased by 1.7% in the first quarter 2019 while capacity increased by 3.0%.
Positive operating free cash flow and net debt reduction
* Sum of ' Purchase of property, plant and equipment and intangible assets' and 'Proceeds on disposal of property, plant and equipment and intangible assets' as presented in the consolidated cash flow statement.
** The “Adjusted operating free cash” is operating free cash flow with deduction of the repayment of lease debt.
Adjusted operating free cash flow positive
The Group generated positive adjusted operating free cash flow of 241 million euros, an increase of 99 million euros compared to last year, mainly explained by a lower capex in the first quarter 2019 due to a year-over-year shift in investment timing pattern.
Leverage stable
The Group reduced its net debt to 5,761 million euros at 31 March 2019 versus 6,164 million euros at 31 December 2018. This 403 million euro reduction was driven by operating free cash flow generation and the repayment of lease debt.
The net debt/EBITDA ratio stood at 1.4x at 31 March 2019, a decrease of 0.03 point compared to 31 December 2018, explained by the reduction of the net debt.
Both airlines impacted by unit revenue pressure and fuel bill increase
Outlook
The global context remains uncertain given the current geopolitical environment and fuel price trends.
For the full year 2019, the Air France-KLM Group plans to selectively grow capacity for the Passenger network by 2% to 3% compared to 2018. Transavia will continue to grow at a sustained pace of 9% to 11%.
Long Haul industry capacity to / from Europe for the summer 2019 is projected to grow at a slower pace compared to last year, particularly to Middle East, North America and Asia.
Based on the current data for the Passenger network:
Full year guidance confirmed:
*****
The first Quarter 2019 accounts are not audited by the Statutory Auditors.
The results presentation is available at www.airfranceklm.com on 3 May 2019 from 7:15 am CET.
A conference call hosted by Mr Gagey (CFO) will be held on 3 May 2019 at 08.30.
To connect to the conference call, please dial:
France: Local +33 (0)1 76 77 22 57
Netherlands: Local +31 (0)20 703 8261
UK: Local +44 (0)330 336 9411
US: Local +1 720-543-0206
Confirmation code: 3069097
To listen to the audio-replay of the conference call, please dial:
Confirmation code: 3069097
Investor Relations Press
Marie-Agnès de Peslouan Wouter van Beek
+33 1 49 89 52 59 +33 1 49 89 52 60 +33 1 41 56 56 00
madepeslouan@airfranceklm.com Wouter-van.Beek@airfranceklm.com
Income Statement
Consolidated Balance Sheet
Statement of consolidated Cash Flows from 1 January until 31 March 2019
Key Performance Indicators
EBITDA
Restated net income - Group part
Return on capital employed (ROCE)
Net debt
Adjusted operating free cash flow
Unit cost: net cost per ASK
* The capacity produced by the transportation activities is combined by adding the capacity of the Passenger network (in ASK) to that of Transavia (in ASK).
Airline results
NB: Sum of individual airline results does not add up to Air France-KLM total due to intercompany eliminations at Group level
Group fleet at 31 March 2019
Passenger unit revenue is the aggregate of Passenger network and Transavia unit revenues; change at constant currency
To align with industry practice, the metric EASK will not be used anymore as of 2019.
New Unit Cost definition will be: Net cost per Available Seat Kilometer at constant fuel and currency
The impact of this change for the unit cost is -0.1pt for 2019
Based on the forward curves of 26 April 2019 average Brent price of USD 69, average jet fuel price of USD 710 per ton including into plane costs. Assuming exchange rate of EUR/USD of 1.13 in 2019
The ROCE definition has been updated within the framework of IFRS 16 implementation. The asset value linked to the aircraft lease contracts now corresponds to the net book value of the right-of-use asset of all the lease contracts. Moreover, the “operating result, adjusted for operating leases” no longer existing having been replaced by “income from current operations” which, thanks to IFRS 16 implementation, no longer includes the financial cost of lease contracts. Finally, the Group now uses a normative income tax rate, calculated according to the tax rates applied in France and in the Netherlands.
Attachment
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