Air France’s revenue fell 70% in August: CEO to paper

Wed Sep 30 2020
Lucy Harlow (4122 articles)
Air France’s revenue fell 70% in August: CEO to paper

Air France suffered a 70% fall in revenue in August while filling only about 30% of the seats on its intercontinental routes, its CEO has told Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera.

The carrier, part of Air France-KLM group AIRF.PA, is still burning through 10 million euros in cash a day but is working to limit losses, CEO Anne Rigail said in an interview published on Wednesday.

It has formed a new transatlantic joint venture with Delta Air Lines DAL.N and Virgin Atlantic, replacing a partnership that also involved Italy’s Alitalia.

Rigail invited Alitalia, which is due to be nationalised, to join the new group, even if as a second level member.

“Alitalia is a long-standing partner and we will propose to them to join the joint venture as an associate member. I want to maintain a strong relationship with them,” she said.

Rigail ruled out an investment in Alitalia but expressed interest in its offer of rapid tests for COVID-19 for passengers flying on certain routes.

“Before we have a vaccine we could reopen some routes with rapid tests as (Alitalia) is experiencing in Milan and Rome,” she told the newspaper.

Tags Air France
Lucy Harlow

Lucy Harlow

Lucy Harlow is a senior Correspondent who has been reporting about Equities, Commodities, Currencies, Bonds etc across the globe for last 10 years. She reports from New York and tracks daily movement of various indices across the Globe