Air France-KLM Engineering & Maintenance (AFI KLM E&M) has suffered another difficult quarter as its total sales fell by almost half to €622 million ($755.3 million), as compared with the first three months of 2020.
The year-ago quarter was less affected than the rest of 2020 by the impact of the pandemic, but even so AFI KLM E&M reported 42% and 35% drops for external and internal sales, respectively, for the full year.
For the most recent quarter, to 31 March, external sales were down 48%, while sales to Air France-KLM Group airlines were 44% lower.
Those figures were roughly in line with how the MRO provider performed in the final quarter of 2020, and show little prospect of improvement in the ongoing quarter, when Air France-KLM plans to operate at 50% of pre-pandemic capacity and travel restrictions continue to hamper airline activity elsewhere in Europe.
“A year into the COVID crisis, lockdown measures and travel restrictions in our home markets and around the world continue to strongly impact the Group’s activity,” noted Air France-KLM’s chief executive officer, Benjamin Smith.
Regarding third-party sales, the MRO provider noted that part of the drop in revenue was due to its own efforts to help its airline customers with cost-saving measures, such as the use of green-time engines instead of engine overhauls.
AFI KLM E&M also noted a significant drop in salary and other costs for its own operation during the quarter, which meant that its operating margin “stabilized versus the First quarter 2020”.
Operating loss for the three months to March, 31 2021 was €8 million.
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