Air France-KLM has returned to profit for the first time in 5 years, helped by cheaper fuel prices and continued cost-cutting.
The Franco-Dutch airline saw their shares soar by 11% last Thursday after the carrier reported a net profit of €118m for 2015, up from a loss of €225m the previous year. Jet-fuel prices have plummeted in the past year by about 40%. This has reduced the fuel bill by 6.7% to more than €6bn.
In October 2015, six staff members were arrested after they assaulted company executives in a protest over 2,900 planned redundancies (see video below). That figure was later revised to 1,600 voluntary departures by 2017, which no doubt has contributed to the latest figures.
Profits could have been even greater had it not been for the Paris terrorist attacks last November. The airline said revenues were hit by an estimated €120m in Q4 2015 as tourists stayed away from the French capital.
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