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Air France-KLM

Air France-KLM is a European airline holding company incorporated under French law with its headquarters at Roissy-Charles de Gaulle Airport near Paris, France.

It is the largest airline company in the world in terms of total operating revenues, and the third largest in the world in terms of passenger-kilometres and passenger fleet size.

The company's CEO is Jean-Cyril Spinetta.

Air France-KLM is member of the SkyTeam airline alliance. They offer a frequent flyer program called Flying Blue. The company's namesake airlines rely on two major hubs: Roissy-Charles de Gaulle International Airport, near Paris, and Schiphol Airport, near Amsterdam.

Financial details

In the fiscal year ending March 31, 2008, the total operating revenues of Air France-KLM amounted to €24.114 billion , with a net profit of €748 million (US$1.18 billion), a net profit decrease of 16 percent compared to the previous year.

Air France-KLM is one of the most profitable companies in Europe, transporting 74,8 millions passengers a year.

Private shareholders own 81.4 percent of the company, with 37 percent held by former Air France shareholders and 21 percent held by former KLM shareholders. The French government owns the remaining 18.6 percent.

In June 2008, Air France-KLM agreed to pay $350 million to settle charges of cargo price fixing in an investigation conducted by the U.S. Justice Department. Cathay Pacific Airways, Martinair Holland, and SAS Cargo Group also agreed to fines, bringing the total to $504 million.

Subsidiaries and minor interests

Wholly-owned subsidiaries of Air France-KLM include:

Air France (including Régional and Brit Air)
KLM (including KLM Cityhopper)
Transavia.com (operating out of Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and Eindhoven, and Orly in Paris. In partnership with Transavia, Air France has launched a new charter/low-cost subsidiary be based at Paris - Orly Airport and had begun operations in spring 2007 with leisure route services in the Mediterranean and North Africa. Transavia has a 40 percent stake and Air France has a 60 percent stake.
CityJet
VLM Airlines On December 24, 2007, Air France-KLM announced that they had signed an agreement for a full takeover of VLM airlines to supplement CityJet activities.

Air France-KLM also owns half of Martinair and has minority interests in Kenya Airways (26 percent), CCM Airlines (12 percent) and Alitalia (2 percent).

In a recent opening for a majority takeover of the loss-generating Alitalia, Air France-KLM was one of three bidders, and was favoured by the board of Alitalia.. However, on 2nd April 2008, it was reported that negotiations have been abandoned. Air France - KLM, has announced it is interested in purchasing Austrian Airlines.

Fleet

The fleet of Air France-KLM includes the fleets of its subsidiaries, the fleet of Air France (255), and the fleet of KLM (115). Furthermore the fleets of Régional (64), Brit Air (43), KLM Cityhopper (55), CityJet (23), VLM Airlines (19) and Transavia.com (29) are fully part of the company. The total number of planes in the fleet is 603 as of August, 2008, up from the March 2005 fleet size of 554.

History

Air France-KLM was created by the mutually-agreed merger between Air France and Netherlands-based KLM on May 5, 2004.

As a result of the deal, the French government's share of Air France was reduced from 54.4 percent (of the former Air France) to 44 percent (of the combined airline). Its share was subsequently reduced to 25 percent, and later to 18.6 percent.

At the time of the merger in May 2004, Air France and KLM combined offered flights to 225 destinations in the world. In the year ending March 21, 2003, the two companies combined transported 66.3 million passengers.

In October 2005, Air France Cargo and KLM Cargo, the two freight subsidiaries of the group, announced a merge of their commercial activities. The Joint Cargo Management Team now operates the organisation worldwide from the Netherlands.