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Air France-Klm Ads
11/7/2024
Good morning and welcome to the Air France KLM third quarter 2024 results presentation. Today's conference is being recorded. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Ben Smith, CEO, and Steven Zart, CFO. Please go ahead, Ben.
Okay. Thank you, Operator, and good morning to all of you. And thank you for joining us today for the presentation. Today, as the operator said, I'm joined by Stephen Zott, our CFO. I'll begin by sharing some of this quarter's key highlights. Following that, Stephen will present our financial performance in detail, as well as our outlook for the coming quarters. Lastly, I'll conclude the presentation with some closing remarks and open the Q&A session. So moving to slide three. First, let's start by looking at our key financial indicators this quarter. So during this quarter, our operating result reached 1.2 billion euros, overall remaining stable compared to last year, once adjusted for the 160 million euro Olympic Games impact. Group revenue grew by 4%, in line with our capacity development, while unit revenue remained steady, showing a 1.4% increase when excluding the Olympic Games effects. We experienced significant pressure on our unit costs during the quarter, impacting our operating margin, particularly at KLM. In response, KLM has announced the launch of what we are calling a back on track program, setting targeted measures to effectively curb the challenges while being aligned with the broader group wide transformation efforts. Our net debt to EBITDA ratio stands at 1.7 times, comfortably within our target range of 1.5 times time to 2.0 times. On the commercial side, I'm pleased to confirm the launch of our co-chair agreement with Scandinavian Airlines System, SAS, following their entry into the SkyTeam Alliance. This partnership marks an important milestone in expanding our network and enhancing connectivity for our customers. Our fleet renewal efforts are progressing well, with next-generation aircraft now comprising 24% of our fleet, a five-point increase from the same period last year. Aligned with our commitment to sustainability, we've signed a major new agreement with TotalEnergie to secure up to 1.5 million tons of sustainable aviation fuel over the next decade, marking a significant step forward in achieving our environmental ambitions. Moving to slide four, I'm proud to share that Alphonse performed with great success ensuring its operation withstood exceptional challenges posed by the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games. After months of preparation across all areas of our airlines, we welcome customers, athletes, sports delegations, journalists, and spectators from around the globe, achieving the highest standards in our pursuit of excellence. Setting ambitious expectations for ourselves, our teams rose to the occasion with professionalism and iconic elegance. As a leading home market airline, Air France was the preferred choice for the largest share of athletes. We transported 18,000 accredited individuals from 150 nationalities and handled 38,000 pieces of baggage. The relocation of check-in facilities to the Olympic Village proved to be a significant value, optimizing flows and enhancing the robustness of our operations. During the Paralympic Games, Air France enhanced its services with a dedicated assistance process for passengers, with disabilities. The legacy of these games will be another step toward more inclusive services, delivering a welcoming and intentional experience for all our customers. With 600,000 requests for special assistance annually, Alphonse is committed to making the travel as smooth as possible for passengers with disabilities. Despite the particular intensity of this period, our teams achieved impressive punctuality results, significantly outperforming our peers. KLM, however, faced a bumpier summer, contending with operational difficulties and rising costs that impacted overall performance. A shortage of pilots and ongoing maintenance issues limited the airline's capacity growth. In response, KLM has launched a comprehensive global plan to strengthen both financial and operational performance, which I will address shortly in the presentation. On the product front, we are finalizing the rollout of premium comfort across the entire KLM wide-body fleet, with installations on the Boeing 787 complete and conversions on the Boeing 777 family aircraft nearing completion. Turning to Transavia, we observed a significant improvement in revenue trends this quarter, with strong growth in ancillary revenue per passenger, driven by successful implementation of a paid hand luggage offer. However, operational performance faced headwinds from various external challenges, including geopolitical tensions, adverse weather, and air traffic control disruptions. On a positive note, I want to highlight Transavia France's resilience during the Olympic Games, maintaining a high level of operational performance throughout this exceptionally busy and complex period. As a part of our ongoing fleet modernization plan, we have welcomed additional Airbus A350, A220, and A320neo family aircraft across our airlines. Despite manufacturing delays, these new aircraft will make a meaningful contribution to improving operational efficiency, economic performance, and environmental sustainability. Moving to slide five, one of our top priorities is to deliver an unparalleled travel experience to our customers, seamlessly blending exceptional service quality with an extensive selection of destinations. This quarter, we have made significant strides in advancing on both fronts. We have previously announced the signature of the acquisition of a 19.9% minority stake in SAS that was closed during this quarter. As of September 1st, 2024, our commercial cooperation has launched with co-chair and interline marketing agreements, which include reciprocal loyalty program benefits. By connecting our networks and hubs, we offer our customers an expanded selection of European destinations and high quality services, SAS also became a member of the SkyTeam Alliance on the same day, marking a groundbreaking move as the first founding member airline of an alliance to transition to a new alliance. We believe this strategic move will offer all our customers expanded travel options and an enhanced travel experience. Elevating our passengers' journey and ensuring the highest standards of excellence from check-in to boarding and beyond is one of our core commitments. And as part of our premiumization strategy, we are focusing on significantly improving customer experience. For our La Première clients, we now offer a personalized escort service along with a new exclusive check-in lobby and private lounge at Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport, delivering a refined experience with extra privacy. New suites connect directly to the lounge for seamless convenience. To further enhance the experience of all customers starting from mid-2025, Alphonse will progressively roll out across its entire fleet ultra-high speed Wi-Fi service which will be provided by Starlink, a global leader in satellite constellation. This service will offer passengers an in-flight internet experience comparable to that on the ground, entirely free of charge and accessible via their Flying Blue account. This is a major step toward elevating our customer experience offer And I'm proud Air France will be the first European airline to push boundaries by providing this high-quality service. Lastly, I would like to share that Flying Blue has been recognized as the best airline loyalty program globally by Points.me. This award is a testament to our team's hard work in fostering deeper customer engagement and reinforcing Flying Blue as a valuable asset of the group. Building on this recognition, we are committed to further enhancing the Flying Blue program in the coming quarters. Slide six, on the sustainability front, we are proud to remain the world's largest airline of sustainable aviation fuel, largest airline user for the second consecutive year. In 2023, the group incorporated 87,000 tons of SAF, doubling our usage from 2022 and accounting for 16% of global SAF production. Decarbonizing air travel depends significantly on the large-scale production and procurement of SAF, and we have made steps to secure the volumes needed to meet our incorporation targets. To this end, we have signed a new agreement with, as I just mentioned, TotalEnergie to supply up to 1.5 million tonnes of SAF to Air France KLM over the next decade, one of our largest SAF purchase contracts to date. On the global arena, we partner with suppliers developing diverse SAF initiatives, helping to build a global production network that can meet both our own long-term needs and contribute to the broader industry transition. Decarbonization requires a global, collective effort with consistent rules and shared standards. To this extent, we actively engage with suppliers, manufacturers, and regulators at both national and international levels to harmonize and align industry frameworks. Slide seven, I would like to focus on KLM's recently announced transformation program, which we're dubbing Back on Track. As mentioned earlier, KLM has been navigating a range of persistent challenges, and while we've made progress in addressing some priority areas, a more systematic approach is necessary to effectively tackle the broader issues at hand. In response to recent surges in costs, we launched Back on Track, a strategic plan to strengthen KLM's operational and financial performance. The program consists of five concrete action measures. We are targeting at least 5% improvement in labor productivity by 2025, enabling KLM to unlock €200 million in savings through efficiency measures and digitization efforts. These initiatives will also be supported by the upcoming collective labor agreement discussions. On the revenue side, KLM is aiming for an increase of at least €100 million through product enhancements, expanded paid options utilizing advanced dynamic pricing, and savings setting a paid catering pilot program to launch in early 2025. Additionally, we are focused on expanding long-haul capacity and enhancing fleet availability to support our operational needs. The plan also includes KLM optimizing its business mix by maximizing contributions from engineering and maintenance, cargo, and Transavia, while evaluating strategic options for KLM catering services. Finally, a capital expenditure prioritization program is set to further strengthen KLM's free cash flow, ensuring that each investment supports our commitment to sustainable profitability. In total, Back on Track is expected to generate €450 million in EBIT in the near term, addressing KLM's ongoing challenges as we work toward reaching EBIT margin target of over 8% by 2026 to 2028. On a broader scale, these efforts go hand-in-hand with Alphonse's own cost-cutting measures announced earlier this year, which include a hiring freeze and over 100 transformational projects now in active implementation. In closing, I'd like to extend my appreciation to all of my colleagues whose commitment and hard work are instrumental in advancing our overarching ambitions of the Alphonse KLM Group. I'll hand it over now to Steven, our CFO.
Yeah, thank you, Ben, and good morning, everybody. I think the third quarter started already quite difficult. We announced actually that we had the Olympic Games, which has a negative impact of 200 million over the full Olympic period, and which was 160 million, let's say, related to the results in July. So that 160 million, we already announced, let's say, to the markets, that if you take that out, then you see that the unit revenue on itself still grew by more than 100 million. Plus we had 100 billion advantage in terms of fuel cost because the fuel price is going down month over month, especially the jet fuel, which of course benefits also us in our P&L. And then we had the very difficult operational performance of KLM leading to a very high cost increase of 8.4%, which resulted also that we are really now on the unit cost reduction track and that we are making sure that we get back on track. So that's also why I like the program. We need to get back on track that KLM delivers the margins as we expected. So the unit cost increase which we had is actually compensated by a slightly higher unit revenue if you exclude it for the Olympics. And there was 100 million of fuel benefit. And you see it quite well if you go to the picture below. You see that in July we had the result of, if you compare year over year, of more than 200 million off. We had a unit revenue at Air France at minus 8%, where KLM was still positive with 1%. So that explains also the 160 million, which we exactly saw for the Olympics. And from August to September, you see that we are improving month by month the results. And of course, we also expect that in Q4, we will deliver better than we did last year. To keep in mind, if you look at the 8.4%, there was already the CLA increases in October last year, so that we're also comparing, let's say, the bottom of the bottom for KLM in terms of unit cost. But we are strictly back on track now. We will follow the program very closely to make sure that KLM gets back on the profitability as we have seen before COVID. On page 10, you see the results per business. So let's start on the network. So we had a minus 1.8% in terms of unit revenue. But if you exclude the Olympics, it's more or less flattish. And we see that on cargo, we are now improving our results. So it was up 6.3% in unit revenue. It was both on demand and both in yield. And then you see, if you look at the total network result, minus 199 million. 125 coming from the Olympics and the other part coming from the KLM unit cost performance. And I will come back later. Then Transavia, a very strong development in unit revenues, plus 5%. That includes also the Olympics. So if you take that out, you're at 8.2% and even 10% in yields. And that resulted that our results are 14 million better than last year. And despite the Olympics, again, I have to mention it again, 35 million impact on Transavia France. So if you would take that all together, actually, we improved our result by 70 million. On the maintenance side, we are very successful in our new context. We are very successful on the engine business, but we have a backdrop on the 787 components. We have actually the meantime between removals between the components are performing very poorly, which makes that we have to borrow a lot of parts from the market. And also we have much higher repair costs. So we are renegotiating first the new contracts with our customers, which we will implement in the coming period. Let's say before the summer, all these contracts should be renegotiated. And then we should also see the further growth again of the maintenance business because the engine business on itself grew significantly in terms of profitability so all in all if you look at it i think a negative impact from the olympics on the network but compensated partly by cargo doing better transavia doing very well and on the maintenance part we need to act on the development of the cost of our components business on page 11 you see the picture so air france is is down 74 million but if you exclude the 160 million And you take into account that they still had Flying Blue for two-thirds of the results of Flying Blue. You see that Air France actually is improving its results, where KLM is off with more than $114 million, driven by a much higher unit cost than we had last year, and partly coming from the fact that all the CLA increases kicked in in October 2023. On Flying Blue itself, we are even surprised every time. We are performing very well over there. We are, especially in the US market, we had yesterday discussion with the CEO of our Flying Blue. It's performing pretty well and it's also delivering actually more than even what we expect ourselves in our transformation program. So a good performance on Flying Blue, but at the end of today at Air France KLM Group, we are off 160 million compared to last year. But again, there was this Olympic Games, which was also 160 million. So it's unfortunate that we could not benefit from an improvement of our results due to the fact that the unit cost at KLM increased that much. If we go to page 12, there you see the yield and the load factor development. So still a very strong demand. You see that the load factor was still very close to last year, despite the Olympics. We heard that especially on the yield side by the Olympics, by the fact that we had more connecting passengers than direct passengers. But what is good to see is that the premium still holds very strong, 2.6% up in the yield despite the Olympics. And on the economy, you see we are still holding the strong load factor of 91%, but we had to drop our tariffs because we had more connecting passengers on our planes. On the long haul and the medium haul, the Olympic impact is more or less the same. And then on the right, you see the very strong performance on Transavia, 10% up in yield, mainly driven by the paid hand luggage, which we implemented since April this year. Then if you look at the long haul network below, you see North America minus 2.4%, which is more or less the Olympic impact, but we see still very strong demand Over there, South America, minus 1.3%, but we know the yields are very strong and with the load factor still of 92%. And still, if you look in the middle, you see that Africa is still holding strong, 1.2%, despite the fact that the geopolitical impact of these three African French-speaking countries in Africa was kicking in in the fourth quarter last year. And we compensate that completely by a strong growth on South Africa. And on the right, you see Asia heavily impacted, of course, also by the Olympics. That is one. We grew further our capacity and the yields are down with minus 7%. But also here, we see that especially, for instance, a country like Japan was highly impacted by the Olympics. on page 13 you see the the cash trajectory so we uh we have the cash flow which was slightly positive it's always our let's say most difficult period of the the year in terms of cash and of course you you still see the 1 billion which we pay in exceptional six more than 600 million to the Air France pension fund for the pilots and close to 400 million in deferred social charges and wage tax. On the right you see the development on the debt where we are still in the range between 1.5 and 2 and we still have 9 billion in cash at our hands. Let's then go to the outlook. So the outlook, let's first start at the revenue side. So the demand is still very promising. We see a load factor, which is actually going up year over year. So we already filled the long haul planes with 77% load factor currently, which is higher than what we had last year. On the medium haul, where we go with 5%, we see also that we have now already sold almost two thirds of all the seats, which is higher than we had last year. And then on Transavia, you see that the load factor is up 1%, where we grow capacity with 5% to 10%. And it goes with a yield which is more or less flattish. So that means that our unit revenues looks very promising for the fourth quarter. Then talking about costs, so the third quarter, we estimated actually at the 2%, in which we included a one-time payment for the Air France stuff related to the uh, good performance on the Olympics as we expected at that moment. Uh, so that was already in, but then again, I come back, uh, we had a very difficult operational climate in Amsterdam, both at KLM and Transavia, uh, which increased our costs significantly. So that's the big chunk of that cost increase. And then also the fact that we reduced capacity, uh, because we, it was difficult to operate that automatically has a negative impact on your unit cost. We expect also that Q4, especially although the operations are more stabilizing, we still have additional maintenance costs. So we have changed our guidance from 2% to 3% for the full year. Then on the fuel, so fuel is really coming down and it also has a big positive impact of the fourth quarter. But also in 2025, you see that fuel is actually now below $800 per jet fuel ton. And that, of course, will support also our 2025 results because it's much, much lower than what we see in 2024. And we already locked in 50% of that price due to our hedge strategy. so if we go to the outlook so we keep our group capacity at four percent uh there is uh let's say despite the fact that we lost some capacity in the third quarter we think we can still hold this on the unit cost we uh upgrade the unit cost to three percent where we were previously on two percent explained already earlier by the increase of the klm unit cost in the third quarter and on top of it also some maintenance costs which we see kicking in in the fourth quarter for our operations. On that CAPEX, we stick to 3 billion. We don't guide any more previously below 3 billion. That has to do with timing impacts. We will sell assets. We expected to sell assets in the third quarter, which will move to the first quarter of 2025, which one is the SPV, which we have with Airbus. We set up an SPV with Airbus on the A350 components. We expected that we would execute that before the 1st of January, but due to regulatory frameworks, we are expecting a slight delay. Let's say it will happen then in the first quarter, which brings $140 million in terms of capex reduction because we sell the components. Of course, we would also have put in equity in that company, but that's not in our capex guidance. And on top, we have some sale and leasebacks in the fourth quarter in. on which we paid already pre-delivery payments. If we do a sale and lease back, we usually have a positive cash coming from that transaction. And given the fact that the deliveries are a little bit difficult from both suppliers, we expect that there will be a slight delay, which will move the sale and lease backs actually from the fourth quarter to the first quarter with an impact of, let's say, close to 60 to 70 million. With that outlook, I hand over to Ben, our Group CEO, to conclude and give some final remarks.
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