Franco-Dutch airline operator Air France KLM bucked the trend of disappointing financial results this morning, seeing shares rise over 6 percent.
The carrier posted an operating profit of 816 million euros, citing the weaker euro and lower fuel prices as reasons for the rise. This profit is huge increase on its 129 million euro loss in 2014, and far above the figure forecasted by analysts.
In an interview with CNBC, the group’s CFO Pierre Francois-Riolacci said that terrorists attacks had had a large impact on the carrier over the last year:
“It badly hit our customers, especially in the Japanese market. With the November 13 attacks, we had a second hit. We estimate that the second hit impact was about 1.20 million euros that impacted us somewhere in November/December… But we believe this impact today has nearly 100 percent faded away.”
Looking ahead, the carrier forecast a reduction of between 0.8 percent and 1.2 percent in unit costs as well as “further significant net debt reduction”. Shares in the company rose 6.58 percent after hours.
The FTSE welcomed the strong results this morning, as European shares slipped from their rising streak with the weight of disappointing company results. Food group Nestle fell 4.3 percent, with KBC also dropping 4 percent. The FTSE 100 is currently down 0.61 percent at 5993.43 (0917GMT).
18/02/2016
