OREANDA-NEWS. "KLM ended a promising first quarter with a sharp increase in passenger traffic. This means KLM is on track to achieve its target of offering 32 million passengers a memorable travel experience in 2017".

Pieter Elbers - KLM President & CEO

KLM’s performance was particularly strong in Europe, where it is relentlessly striving to increase its market share. KLM Cityhopper added a seventh new Embraer 175 to its fleet in March. Transavia reported strong growth, with performance compared to March 2016, when the KLM subsidiary had just opened its Munich base.

KLM Cargo managed to profit from the global increase in air cargo traffic. Traffic figures declined 0.7% compare to March 2016, with cargo capacity down 0.3%. Cargo load factor increased by 1.5 percentage point.

This confirms that KLM did well in the first quarter of 2017, with passenger figures up 6.5% during the first three months of the year, which amounts to 430,000 additional passengers. Capacity increased by 4.7%, with load factor up 1 percentage point.