A distribution of tasks dictated by the operating costs

Once considered the showcase for the group, branch of Air France-KLM cargo is poised to undergo a radical overhaul of its organization, including the strategic scope shows the discounts in question provoked by the crisis. World number one in the sector, Air France - KLM Cargo is nevertheless poised to radically economic model, in committing to what looks like to the "low cost". According to our information, the Dutch group would indeed decide to entrust the major part of its activity in cargo in its Dutch subsidiary low cost Martinair.

According the information provided on 4 September to the central business Committee (CEC) - through also a troubled period (read box)-, it is indeed this small company, purchased 100 year last by KLM at the end of a long process, that will return the care to the heart of business: all-cargo scheduled. With the exception of four all-cargo aircraft, Air France Cargo is recentrera, for its part, on the pallet transport in the bunkers of its aircraft passengers, with the constraints of destinations, schedules and volumes that this implies. As KLM, it will be limited to the operation of its B747 combi 17, mi-cargo, mi-passagers. A distribution of tasks dictated by the operating costs. If all-cargo represents the heart of the activity, it is also the most expensive mode of operation. So, in the current state, no line all - cargo operated by Air France is profitable. Where the decision to entrust operations Martinair, production costs significantly lower than those of the French company, penalized by its salary expenses.

Supply reduction

This redistribution of roles will be accompanied to a drastic reduction in supply, intended to compensate for the decrease in cargo traffic, about 20 since the beginning of the year (against 5 to 10 for passenger traffic). Air France, which has already reduced its all-cargo fleet of 12 to 7 devices out of Roissy, should not only keep 4 this winter (2 B777 F and 2 B747 ERF), which will be added, in Amsterdam, 2 B747 KLM cargo (instead of 4) and 9 units (7 2 B747 and MD11) cargo of its Dutch subsidiary Martinair (rather than 11). This specialization will be also accompanied major efforts of productivity in Air France, whose workforce (3.200 employees) have already melted 10 last year, through natural attrition and the transfer of a part of the sureffectifs passenger activity. Paradoxically, this discount flat pass, however, by a dramatic realignment of the rates on the rise. As some customers to have already been informed, rates of Air France-KLM Cargo will thus increase from 20 to 30 as early as next month. Because they could not stem the decline in freight traffic, yet fell 16 last month, the Group hopes to stop the degradation of its unit revenue and curb financial hemorrhage of the cargo industry. First home loss, its operating deficit reached EUR 197 million for the only first quarter of the 2009-2010 fiscal year (April-June) with a turnover of 540 million, decreased by 41.5.

Moreover, this restructuring should also allow to turn the page of a system of tariff agreements, target of a joint us-European joint investigation. It should coincide with the announcement by the European Commission of the amount of the fine incurred by Air France-KLM for illegal tariff agreement in cargo. The group, which has already had to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in the United States for the same case, already has provisioned several hundreds of millions of euros for this purpose. But it also likely recourse in justice to aggrieved customers.