After a year that was marked by the loss of 228 lives in a crash off the coast of Brazil, the airline said that its revenues have fallen 15 percent to €21 billion in the year ending March 31. This has a lot to do with the fact that passengers are now shifting from full service airlines to low cost carriers. The ones that are flying full service are downgrading from business to economy class.

Pierre Henri Gourgeon, who is the chief executive, said that 2009-2010 will go on record as their annus horribilis. The operating loss of €1.28 billion is ten times larger than the last financial year, which was the first time the airline had recorded a loss since 1996. The final quarter was particularly bad, with a net loss of €691 million.

Mr Gourgeon went on to paint a picture for everyone about the current financial year. He expects to break even in terms of operating profit after excluding the cost of fuel hedges from its balance sheet. He also said that the airline’s cost cutting program had begun to reap rewards and that the recent weeks had brought the firs signs of recovery that the airline had seen in a long time. The company hopes to make savings of €800 million over two years under a plan that will include 3,600 job losses.

This joint corporate benefit scheme is aimed at small and medium enterprises. Blue Credits can be earned for the company every time an employee travels with Air France or KLM. These points are earned in addition to an employee’s individual Flying Blue Miles for the Air France KLM frequent flyer program.

The Blue Credits can, of course, be converted into flights and upgrades to any destination in the airline’s global network. The number earned varies according to the route flown and class of travel. The program is free to join, and there is no minimum number of trips to be made to stay in the program.

Air France KLM’s VP of corporate and distribution, Jean Wieviorka, said small and medium enterprises are looking for an easy to use corporate benefits program that enables them to make additional savings on their travel budget. By developing a new program that is designed on the best characteristics of the former Air France and KLM programs, the group offers small and medium sized businesses extended coverage of its entire network and partners.

Many airlines just like Air France are starting to offer expended loyal programs. The more loyal customers that an airline has, the more passengers it can expect to get. Of course, it’s easy to see why airlines are going after companies more than they are going after individual flyers. Business travel is how most airlines make most of their money.

Air France KLM has admitted that they plan to axe another 1,200 jobs, which comes after their announcement of a sharp increase in losses for the 3^rd quarter.  A week following the announcement from British Airways of an £85 billion loss during the 3^rd quarter, Air France KLM said that they fell victim to the crisis as well, which has hit cargo and passenger traffic both.

The Group revealed a reduction of €1.2 billion in costs, half of which are to be put into effect this year, and they plan to cut from 1,000 to 1,200 workers through a hiring freeze, retirement, and voluntary departures.  Around 450 managers between the ages of 60 and 65 are being encouraged to retire from the company, even though there won’t be any compulsory redundancies.  An airline spokeswoman said that Air France KLM is going to continue their cost reduction program, which showed a 2,000 job cut in their workforce for 2008.

The carrier says that they recorded an operating loss of €194 million for the 3 months leading to December 31^st.  Even though revenue continued to be stable and long-haul traffic was resilient, they witnessed a drop in overall passenger numbers by 1.9% during the month of January, which was due greatly to the decline in bookings for short-haul services.  The freight traffic for the airline also fell 20% during last month for the second month.

Air France KLM says that they will cut capacity by 2% during the summer since the outlook of the economy is only growing worse by the day.  However, they have maintained their forecast of ending in the black for the fiscal year ending March.

Learn more at:  www.airfranceklm-finance.com

The carrier’s net income from July until the end of September dropped from €736 million earlier in the year to €28 million, according to the airline last Thursday. Their earnings before tax and interest were €405 million, which is down 44% in comparison to the €725 million of last year. Also their income from operations dropped to €639 million, which is also 44% less than last year’s €1.14 billion. Figures for the 2^nd quarter included a charge of €373 million against hedging instruments worth.

On October 24^th, the company talked of an operating profit of €1 billion, warning that achieving that goal would prove to be difficult. Then recently this largest airline in Europe said that they will be totally profitable for this fiscal year.

Jean-Cyril Spinetta, the Chief Executive Officer of Air France KLM, said in a statement that the economy’s deterioration has increased since the summer. The company also sated that passenger traffic has held up rather well, increasing by 1.7%, which kept their planes flying at 83% full.

Pierre-Henri Gourgeon, the Chief Operating Officer of the company and who is to be the Chief Executive come January, said that their first half was good during the difficult economic environment, and they resisted it better than their competitors, because they have a two hub powerful system. He also added that their operating margin was superior to that of British Airways and Lufthansa.

Get more information about the airline at: www.airfranceklm-finance.com

Although Air France KLM managed to offset some price rises on their energy bill by charging extra fees on fares, the price of jet fuel took a chunk from their earnings by 1.36 billion euros, which is more than last year by 266 million euros. Unit costs aside from the cost of fuel rose as well, according to the airline, with a rise of 0.9% when currencies and fuel are excluded.

The earnings report from the airline comes only a week following Iberia and British Airways taking a page from their playbook by announcing that the 2 airlines were having talks for a merge. Air France KLM maintains operations under the names of KLM and Air France, the same that Iberia and British Airways are planning. If BA-Iberia are combined, then Air France KLM could be put under pressure since they are 2nd in Latin America and Europe behind Iberia for providing flights between the 2 locations. When KLM and Air France combined, they saved 114 million euros in the quarter, according to the airline. Their Challenge 10 program is going to generate another savings of 190 million euros for the fiscal year, bringing their total of savings at 620 million euros.

Find out more at: www.airfrance.com -or- www.klm.com

The airline has made the estimate that their fuel bill will rise by more than 1 billion euros for this financial year in comparison to the last 12 months. Spinetta says that he is confident that the Northwest Airlines Corp., Delta Air Lines Inc., KLM, and Air France joint venture will be completed by the beginning of April next year. All four of the airlines have obtained the approval of the United States to collaborate their operations in the North Atlantic in the sharing of revenue and cost, which is estimated to have a 7.5 billion euro total revenue. Many airlines have disappeared already in recent months, Spinetta said, and this is very likely to increase.

For booking information on Air France, visit www.airfrance.com

Go to www.klm.com to book a flight with KLM.