Earnings for KLM Iberia grew 15 percent in 2002 amid the crisis

Dutch airline KLM Iberia reaped revenues for 100 million euros in the course of the past twelve months (from April 2002 to March 2003), good enough for a 15 percent spike compared to the previous such period. “And all this has happened regardless of the ongoing crisis,” said Fernando Bessa, KLM’s senior director for Spain and Portugal.

Out of that grand total, 85 percent of the money came from Spain and the remaining 15 percent from Portugal. Mr. Bessa explained the company’s estimated cost cutting –somewhere around 650 million euros through 2005- won’t snap the continuation of the carrier’s five daily flights to Madrid and Barcelona, but it’ll rather put more plane seats on sale.

Mr. Bessa pointed out the investment plan has more to do with plane seats than with flights and in that respects –he added- the airline is using Boeing 737-900 aircraft to fly to Barcelona and Boeing 737-800s to cover the Madrid route.

The number of used plane seats aboard Spain-bound flights hovered around 80 percent during the past twelve months. “The Spanish market is faring some five points above the average percentage and there’re no reasons to believe this trend will be snapped in the future,” he underlined.

Nevertheless, the economic meltdown prior to the 9/11 attacks, the ensuing events, the war in Iraq and now the SARS outbreak had forced to company to slash 3,000 employees off its payroll in a piecemeal fashion into the year 2005, a situation that’s likely to affect some 156 workers in Spain and Portugal combined.