Air France strike cost AF-KLM €90 million; Transavia star of airline group

Striking cabin crew at Air France cost the Air France-KLM group a massive 90 million euros in damages. The airline group was kept afloat by an increase in passengers, especially thanks to Dutch subsidiary Transavia, NOS reports. At Air France itself the number of passengers fell 4.4 percent to 3.63 million. The week long strike fell in the busy summer months - late July and early August - costing the airline both passengers and money. Looking at the whole group, a total of 9.16 million passengers were transported in summer holiday month July - an increase of 2.9 percent compared to July last year. Transavia's passenger numbers increased by a massive 23 percent to 1.6 million travelers. If Transavia is excluded, the group's passenger numbers dropped by 0.6 percent. KLM transported 2.9 million passengers in July, an increase of 6 percent compared to July 2015. The planes of the Dutch airline was 90,5 percent filled, slightly better than last year. Air France-KLM freight transport decreased with almost 7 percent.