One of the largest fleets in Europe
At March 31, 2011, the Air France-KLM Group fleet comprised 609 aircraft, of which 593 were operational.
A pro-active fleet policy
The Air France-KLM Group pursues a pro-active fleet policy whose objective is to ensure a fleet scaled in line with traffic growth and achieve technological consistency while reducing its environmental impact.
The fleet policy is established according to the following 4 key principles:
- to meet the need for fleet renewal and expansion,
- to remain compatible with the Group's financial capacity,
- to preserve the asset value of the fleet over the medium and long term,
- to retain an adequate level of flexibility in the fleet plan.
Air France-KLM traditionally finances its fleet by acquisition (45%), finance lease (19%) or operating lease (36%). The latter financing method gives it greater flexibility with clauses enabling the restitution of the aircraft or contract extensions depending on requirements.
Adjusting the fleet plan and investment
Flexibility in the management of the fleet that enables capacity to be fine-tuned to demand is an important optimization tool in a sector that is subject to considerable and rapid change. This flexibility is achieved either through contract clauses or operating lease contracts.
In addition to this flexibility and to contend with the crisis, the Group took 2 major measures which impacted the fleet plan: the rescheduling, over a 4-year period, of the delivery of 17 aircraft under firm order initially planned for 2009-10 and 2010-11 and the deferral of the exercise of 5 options.
During the 2010-11 financial year, the Group organized an additional adjustment to the fleet plan enabling the investment plan to be further reduced in line with the challenges facing the industry by extending the operation of 4 Boeing B747-400 aircraft and postponing the delivery of 2 Boeing B777-300s.
Investment plan
