AIR France-KLM Stock

Good morning, and welcome to the Air France-KLM First Quarter 2026 Results Presentation. Today's conference is being recorded. [Operator Instructions] At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Benjamin Smith, CEO; and Steven Zaat, CFO. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us for Air France-KLM's First Quarter 2026 Results Presentation. I'll start by highlighting our key achievements for the quarter before handing over to our CFO, Steven Zaat, who will provide a more detailed review of our financial performance. I'll return later for some closing remarks before we open the floor to your questions.

Before diving into the details, I want to highlight a critical point regarding the quarter. While fuel prices have surged since the start of the Middle East conflict, this impact is not yet visible in our first quarter results due to a lag in fuel pricing. This is a vital distinction as these costs will weigh on the upcoming quarters. Overall, the first quarter represents a solid start to the year, defined by strong commercial momentum and disciplined execution in a volatile environment. We carried over 22 million passengers, up 2.3% year-over-year, confirming that travel demand remains resilient.

Furthermore, we demonstrated our agility by swiftly reallocating capacity following the suspension of services to the Near and Middle East. Group revenues rose 4.4% to EUR 7.5 billion, fueled by higher yields in our network activity and a strong performance in maintenance. Unit revenue grew by 3.4% at constant currency, supported by our premiumization strategy and reduced industry capacity in March.

Simultaneously, we reinforced our strict cost discipline. Unit costs increased by only 0.5% as we balanced investments in our premium offering with productivity gains and the benefits of fleet renewal. As a result, our operating result improved significantly to negative EUR 27 million, a EUR 301 million step-up compared to last year. We also moved forward with our fleet modernization with next-generation aircraft now representing 36% of our total fleet, an 8-point increase year-over-year. As I noted, these solid results do not yet reflect the full financial impact of the current crisis. Stephen will come back to this in more detail, including the measures in place.

Moving to Slide 4. It's important to contextualize our performance within the current situation in the Middle East and the specific complexities it has introduced to our operations. The conflict has directly impacted Gulf carriers that up to conflict already covered more than 1/4 of the traffic volumes between Europe and Asia through their mega connector hubs. The disruption of these flows has created significant imbalances in global travel supply and demand. Furthermore, the conflict introduced even more airspace constraints and higher spot fuel prices, all of which contribute to a more demanding operating environment.

In this context, our group has once again demonstrated its resilience and agility across 3 pillars. First, our limited exposure to the Near and Middle East at approximately 2% of group capacity allowed us to swiftly withdraw capacity from the region, ensuring that no aircraft remain unutilized or grounded. Second, our hub-and-spoke model and diversified network of over 300 destinations enabled us to reallocate that extra capacity to markets where demand remains strong.

And third, by actively managing East-West traffic, we responded dynamically to supply-demand shifts rerouting international long-haul flows through our hubs in Paris and Amsterdam while capitalizing on rising yields. I want to emphasize that while our agility allowed us to mitigate the disruption and recapture demand, the situation remains uncertain. Looking ahead, as previously mentioned, we anticipate that we will not be able to fully offset the impact of higher fuel prices in the quarters to come.

Moving now on to Slide 5. I'm very pleased to announce the successful completion of a major step in our strategic road map, and that's the transfer of Air France's Orly-based routes to Transavia France. This move is central to our ambition to strengthen the group's efficiency and long-term competitiveness. Operationally, this transition planned over the last 3 years has been executed seamlessly. We have maintained comprehensive coverage on key domestic routes, including 2 daily flights to Marseille, 8 daily flights to Nice and Toulouse, respectively. Load factors are already exceeding expectations and continue to build.

Furthermore, operational reliability has been exceptionally strong with a 99.9% completion rate. Beyond operational success, we are seeing encouraging commercial traction, the strong uptake of our Plus and MAX fares reflects higher customer satisfaction with the Transavia product and a clear appetite for our premium ancillary offerings. Financially, this transition is a structural turning point for Air France, effectively addressing the historically loss-making domestic point-to-point segment.

By consolidating Air France operations at Paris CDG Airport, we are already seeing improved hub feeding, greater operational efficiency and increased booking volumes on connecting routes. Looking forward, we will continue to maximize demand, support customer migration and further leverage Flying Blue across the group to drive loyalty.

So I'll now hand it over to Steven, who will take you through the financial results in more detail. Steven?

Yes. Good morning, everybody, on this beautiful day in Paris, where it's much more peaceful than it is in the rest of the world. So let's go to Page 7. If we look at the result, it gives a bit of a realistic view. which doesn't show yet, as Ben mentioned, the current fuel price increase. And at the same time, we already benefited from all the measures we took in the unit revenue. So if you go to the picture at the right top, you see that we had a positive impact of the fuel price.

And that comes that the fuel price is actually having a delay before it gets into our system. So we have places where it takes almost 3 weeks before we pay the fuel price. We have places where it is 1 week. So let's say, on average, it's around 2 weeks.And then you see that the fuel price impact on itself of the spot is around EUR 107 million. And at the same time, we get the full impact of the hedge, which is EUR 164 million. So we have a EUR 60 million gain just out of the situation. But, of course, this fuel price will get into the system in the month to come.

If you then go to the unit revenue, you see the unit revenue is up 3.4%. But be aware that the March unit revenue is up 12%. So there is a big impact from March, and that resulted at the end of the day that we have an improvement of our result because the unit revenue increase is already kicking in. The fuel price is even positive due to our hedge strategy. And at the same time, you see that the unit costs are quite well under control. We are at 0.5% despite the weather impact, which we had in January, especially in Amsterdam.

If we then go to Page 8, you see the view of the business segments. So let's start on the network. Passenger business unit revenue up 5.1%. And also there, if you split it, you will see that it is more or less flattish up to February, and then it is spiking with 14% in March. On cargo, you see a slight decrease, but we should keep in mind that we had last year the front-loading because of the tariff announcements in the U.S. So last year, the unit revenues in the cargo were up 16%. And that is also reflected if you look at the cargo unit revenue in this quarter. Year-to-date, until February, we were at minus 6%. But in March, we had an increase of 7% of our unit revenues, which in total gets to the minus 0.7% if you take the mix difference between January and March.

Then on Transavia, Transavia, you see a steep increase in capacity, and that goes hand-in-hand with the unit revenue decrease. Ben explained the rationale for this. So we grew especially on Transavia France, but also Transavia in the Netherlands grew by the upgauging of our fleet. And last but not least, if we look at our Maintenance segment, you see a minus EUR 7 million. We have a negative impact from the dollar due to the fact that we have more maintenance revenues than maintenance cost. So the impact of the dollar is around EUR 17 million. We saw a stronger maintenance performance in our components business, especially in Amsterdam. So that's good to see that the Back on Track is working there. But at the same time, we see more complications in Paris on the GE-90. But overall, it's mainly impacted by the dollar. If we would not have this dollar impact, the maintenance business would grow further in profitability.

Then going to Page 9, where we see the results of Air France, KLM and Flying Blue. Let's start at the bottom. Flying Blue. You see a significant increase in our performance. We have now the full impact of the Amex contract because it gets, let's say, operational from the 1st of January, what we signed actually last year. And that resulted in an increase of our profitability by EUR 27 million -- sorry, EUR 32 million, bringing our margins up to 30%.

Then KLM, we know that KLM had a very difficult January. It was around EUR 80 million impact of the weather disruptions. But you see that the Back on Track is starting to work now. They had a unit cost decrease in the month in this quarter. So all in all, the KLM performance is quite going in the right direction with also seeing that the operational performance, if you keep out the snow was quite good in this quarter. So if you put back this EUR 80 million to the results, you see that they are also close to breakeven and they will improve, let's say, with around EUR 160 million compared to last year. And then Air France benefiting from the strong improvement of the unit revenues, which we just saw. And the same story, we didn't have the fuel price impact yet in place.

If we then go to Page 10, that's -- on the top, you see an increase in capacity, an increase in load factor and increase in yield. First, you see again that the premiumization is working. So in the first and business class, you see an uptick in the load factor and you see an increase again in our yield. So all in all together, it is, let's say, 8% in terms of unit revenues. Then our premium economy. We keep on premiumization of our economy sector. And you see that we increased the capacity and at the same time, we increased further our yields over there. And this is a very profitable segment. So we are very happy that we are growing in this segment further and is well appreciated by our customers.

Then on the economy, you see an increase of 2% of capacity, load factor more or less flattish. And then at the end, it was a plus 2% and mainly driven also by the month of March. If you look on the right bottom, you see that the March impact is significant, an increase of load factor close to 3% and an increase of yield close to 9%. So you can imagine that, that has a big impact on the unit revenue picture.

Over the world, the West is still holding strong. So increasing capacity in Latin America, we increased also the load factor, and you see yields going up between 6% to 7%. So strong demand over there, and we are also able to push up the prices over there since the crisis started. And then on the right, that's very interesting to see. We put them together Asia and the Middle East. We are not so exposed to the Middle East. That's only 2% to 3% of our revenues.

And you see if you put them together, and we know that there's only one month in after the situation, you see that the yields increased by 8% and the load factor increased by almost 2%. And we were able also to reallocate capacity to that segment. And especially, of course, in the month of March in Asia, we saw unit revenues in that segment over the 30%. So all in all, it's quite strong. Even in the short and medium-haul, you see that we are able to increase the prices year-over-year to cover our increase of fuel price, which didn't come yet into our system in the first quarter.

Then if we go to Page 11. I think you see further evidence of our strong unit cost control. First, we had the customer compensation mainly related to the January situation. So actually, if we would not have that, we would have a flattish unit cost. We gained almost 1% in productivity. We still had the impact of the Schiphol charges, and we are welcoming, let's say, the new announcements of Schiphol, but this still has a negative impact in the first quarter because the charges are not yet reduced, and so it was still increasing year-over-year.

Then the premiumization didn't have a big impact in this quarter. That is just a seasonality impact when we, let's say, take out planes to, let's say, to put them in modification and the planes are coming out. For the full year, we expect a 0.5%. But in this quarter, it was just 0.1%. So I think the unit costs are well under control, and we keep on keeping our guidance between 0% and 2%. As Ben mentioned, we are taking more measures to, let's say, to keep control and to keep control of our financial results.

First, we stopped hiring for the support staff. We have EUR 500 million on discretionary spend where we are cutting significantly by reducing significantly any costs related to consultants, any cost related to internal travel. So we are cutting all the costs there, which we can to the maximum. Of course, we keep on recruiting operational staff because we need them to keep our operations running. And we also will -- in this EUR 500 million, there's also a part related to training, which we will keep on continuing.

Then on the cash flow, which you see on Page 12. The main outlay is, of course, that after 17 years, I think we paid now the cargo claim. So that is an impact of almost EUR 370 million. If you take that out and you take into account the payments of the lease debt and the net interest, you see that we were improving our cash flow with around EUR 100 million. And on the right side, you see that we reduced our net debt. We are now at the lower end of the guidance at EUR 1.5 at the end of March 2026, which is a reduction of 0.2 versus the beginning of the year. But we are always helped in this quarter, as we all know, by the strong ticket sales, which we still have to fly in the second and the third quarter.

Let's then go to the outlook because that is actually maybe more interesting than what we did in the first quarter. If you look at the outlook and we look at the fuel bill, you see that we have an increase of the fuel bill of $2.4 billion. That includes our hedge results. So the hedge results brings a $1.5 billion reduction of our fuel bill, but the net impact is still $2.4 billion with a significant increase in the quarter 2, where there's $1.1 billion, and it slides away because the forward curve is still in backwardation for the coming quarters.

You know we have a hedge strategy, which we have opened and publicly, we kept on our hedge strategy until the end of the March. Then we took a pause. So -- because the Forward is really moving with all the news coming from the [ Truth ] platform. But our teams have the room to take action if they see that there are big decreases in the market, especially for the year 2027. So they have a room of 2% of our consumption. So they have room to act quickly because we -- before we sit together, then there's another message on the Truth platform, which can impact the price. So we have a tactical approach. We will see in the coming weeks what we will do and how we will continue our fuel hedge strategy. But for 2026, we are almost 70% hedged already for the full year because we continue that part.

If we then go to the bookings. So we still see that there is travel appetite. Actually, you see that the gap in booking load factor is reducing compared to what we saw in the previous quarter. So in the long haul, it's just 1% down where we were more in the range of 2%. You see that on the short and medium haul, it's even up. And in Transavia, despite the growth in capacity, you see it's going up with another 1%. Then the big question, of course, for everybody is how much of this EUR 2.4 billion are you able to compensate through your revenues.

Now let's go to the month of April. So based on the actuals of the first 24 days of April, we estimate that the yield in the month of April for our passenger business will be up 9% year-on-year ex currency, and that reflects approximately a recapturing of around 60% of the fuel price increase in April. So that is what we are currently seeing. So all the tariffs, which we -- let's say, the increases in price, which we put into the market are there to compensate also the fuel cost, but we are not able in the second quarter to fully compensate that through our revenues.

Then if we go to Page 16, we have slightly downgraded our capacity. We still see that for the quarters to come, especially for the summer, there is still with the current fuel price, it's still profitable to fly all these routes. We look at a flight contribution level. And as we all know, the prices in these months are at such a level that you can even compensate for the higher fuel price. Then the question more -- comes more what will happen in the winter. And I think nobody knows yet what will happen in the winter. So -- and there, we take a little bit more cautious approach because we need to act if this fuel price stays at the current level, we will, of course, be agile and will reduce our capacity.

So for the long haul, where we previously guided at 4%, we are now at 2% to 4%. For the short and medium haul, it's stable, but we went down actually a little bit in our own view, but it is more or less stable year-over-year. In Transavia, where we were previously at 10%, we are now at 8% to 10%. So we reduced our capacity guidance with 1%. Of course, we take tactical actions if you see that the flight contribution is negative on flight. But for the moment, we see quite good bookings coming in also for the summer.

Then on Page 17, now group capacity, I already explained. Unit cost, we keep our guidance, so 0% to 2%, including 0.5% related to the premiumization. On the net CapEx, we will also act on CapEx. So we will be very cautious on our investment committees. So actually, everything which is not necessary. But if it's still necessary for our strategy, we will continue on the capital expenditure. So we have discussions on the IT.

But for sure, we are continuing our innovation over there to make sure that we are getting even stronger out of this situation. But it will be below the EUR 3 billion compared to the previously EUR 3 billion, which we stated to the market last quarter. And then on leverage, the net debt to current EBITDA, we were in March at 1.5. We expect to end more at the higher end of this range. But that, of course, all depends on the circumstances which are happening in this world.

So with that, I hope that I gave you enough coloring so that there will be no questions, but probably that will not be the situation. So I hand over to Ben.

Okay. Thanks, Steven. So we're now ready to take your questions. And I think the operator will give the instructions on how to do so.

[Operator Instructions] The next question comes from Alex Irving from Bernstein.

A couple from me, please. First of all, how are you thinking about capacity planning, not just the short term, but the longer term? And what are the merits of bringing forward the retirement date of some older subfleets in the higher fuel price environment. Which ones of those would make the most sense? And second, why did you only cut 1% from capacity growth for this year? Why are you so confident that yields will continue to absorb the additional fuel cost into, let's say, Q3 and beyond? And if I can sneak a related question in here, how much of your strong performance do you think is due to temporarily attracting more than your natural share of transfer traffic given the strikes in Frankfurt?

Alex, Okay. Well, my initial reaction probably the same as yours is why don't we have the opportunity or why shouldn't we be canceling more flights or pulling airplanes out, especially older aircraft. But the teams here have done extensive studies on which flights would be still flight contribution positive despite the future forward curve of fuel prices. So almost 99% of what we have planned for the summer will be flight contribution positive. So we'll have some slight adjustments, but minor adjustments to capacity, and we plan on maintaining the entire fleet of the older airplanes, which would include the Airbus A330s at both Air France and KLM. And depending on how things play out for the latter part of the year, we could look to readjust that and early up the retirement of those airplanes. We had already scheduled to retire a fleet of A330-200s at Air France next year and shortly after the A330-200s at KLM. But as of today, we anticipate to fly pretty much the whole schedule of the 2 main airlines in the group through the end of the third quarter.

Yes. So I think that gives a light of the 1% capacity. So we don't expect that much capacity cuts coming from our network. The prices are really steady. and we will adjust if needed at the, let's say, in the winter season.

And with respect to the gains or the incremental revenue that we're seeing because of the ongoing strikes at Lufthansa, yes, well, it's now going on several times that we've seen this. And naturally, with the flights being relatively full with what is going on in the Middle East, we are seeing yields going up by default more so than would have been the case in Lufthansa were not on strike. And then, of course, on routes going westbound, we are seeing increases. So obviously, that's positive for us, and we'll continue to watch that. But yes, definitely positive for us.

The next question comes from Jarrod Castle from UBS.

I mean I think Steven you said at the moment passing about 6% of the increase in the fuel. . .

Jarrod, you need to do something on your connection because it's difficult to hear you.

Sorry, is that better?

Much better.

Okay. I mean you were saying that, Steven, that you're passing on about 60% of the increase in the fuel cost. And I guess for the full year, we're talking about over $2 billion increase. I mean, should we assume that the net headwind on your earnings is approaching $1 billion? Secondly, if I may, you also spoke about CapEx being below $3 billion. Can you maybe quantify kind of the magnitude in terms of how much below $3 billion and the areas that you might look to cut CapEx, please? And then just lastly, I mean, you obviously said you're going to progress with TAP. So just any initial thoughts based on the initial due diligence or views in terms of how you see that opportunity? Are you more excited, less excited? Do you think you can do a lot more with it than maybe you initially thought you would be able to?

Okay, Jarrod. First, the 60% is a proxy for April. But we have, of course, the actual yield for the first 24 days, and we know already what we have sold. So that is not so difficult to say. I think the 60% is more a proxy for the second quarter. I think for the third and the fourth quarter as the fuel price is still very volatile, it's very difficult to say. So I don't -- I'm not going to take any bet on this at this moment. But you will know that the fuel price is still in backwardation. But if there is happening something tomorrow positively because that can sometimes also happen, then it will also steeply drop. So let's take it more for a proxy for maybe the second quarter than for the full year. I would not take anything for that.

And then on the CapEx, yes, what I said, what is strategic, we will continue for sure. We look at the innovations, but we try to limit it and what we can further delay, we will further delay for the moment. But let's say, we are already in, as you know, for 4 months. And so don't expect that there will be a CapEx cut of 20% or something. It will be more limited. You can more talk about, let's say, a range between 5% to 10% or something. That is what we are going to do.

And I think on the CapEx mitigation, I mean we went through this exercise during COVID. So we have got a lot of experience in this. There's a chance that just naturally, we may take a few delays from Airbus, which will push CapEx into next year, not linked directly with this crisis. So as Steven just mentioned, we will see some reduction in CapEx, but we're not looking at a massive reduction at this point. With respect to TAP, so we've -- as you probably know, we put in a nonbinding offer. And the next phase is the binding offer, which will be in the next couple of weeks. And we do -- we have intended -- we have indicated our intent to follow through. There's only 2 bidders, ourselves and another party. And the strategic importance of TAP to us remains the same. The geographical location of Lisbon to build on top of our already strong position in Latin America is still very important. We have our historic relationships with an airline in South America, Brazil being our most important market. So the way we view Latin America has not changed whatsoever, and we'll put through the strongest bid that we can.

Yes. And on top of that, let's say, we will do a more in-depth due diligence. So we -- of course, the data [ room ] because it was open to, let's say, all the competitors for this bid. We will now do an intensive due diligence on, let's say, the financials and also on the legal. So that is what we are going to put in place in the coming period. And then we come most likely with a binding offer at the end of July, at the beginning of August.

The next question comes from Harry Gowers from JPMorgan.

A couple of questions from me. First one, I mean, you've given the Q2 kind of book load factor in the presentation, but any concerns on forward bookings when you look a little bit further into peak summer and Q3? And are the elevated ticket prices starting to put people off traveling at all into peak summer? And then second question would be just around Asia pricing. Very strong in Asia. . .

Harry, the second -- the first question was pretty clear. The second question, can you get closer to any GSM antenna because we lost you. No, it's not better. What -- why don't you send an e-mail to Michiel on the second -- on the other questions, and we will get back to you later. I can already come with an answer on what you say about the peak summer and what's Q2. So you see Q2. For Q3, we see more or less the same booking trend as what we saw last year. Of course, the pricing is different because we increase our prices related to the fuel price, but we see the same kind of trend. So it's not weakening. It's also not strongly increasing, but we see the same trend as what we have seen in the summer for 2025. And that also gives us confidence to keep the capacity, of course, in for the summer. Any other questions, please send it to Michiel, and we will answer them later.

The next question comes from James Hollins from BNP Paribas.

I thought it's worth, I think. I can hear all my analyst [ makes ] pretty well, not be your line, but I'll give it a go anyway. Just on -- wondering if you have any comment on jet fuel shortages, clearly a topic at the moment. So I was wondering if you just wanted to give an update on whether you are seeing any shortages, whether it's Asia, I assume you'll find in your hubs. And then secondly, clearly, you guys are closer to the regulators than we are. I was wondering if you are expecting any fairly immediate EU action on some regulation changes such as allowing tankering, that type of thing. I hope you could hear that.

Regarding the fuel shortages, we have not got any issues today. We don't see from the Dutch state or the French state. We've been working very closely because it's not only aviation where there's a concern of fuel availability. In the short term, we don't have any indication there'll be an issue. Out stations, we have 6 stations around Asia where there could be a concern, at least not in the next short while that we're looking at in terms of stock, what could be available in -- after the next 2, 3 months. But today, we're not in a position to give you a viewpoint. Our assumption today is that we don't have any issues with stock at least through the end of Q2.

And on the regulations, let's -- what is very important, and we have those discussions also with the government and with the EU is that we have not a difference, let's say, that it's allowed to use jet fuel with the specification of the U.S. because we are flying on those planes continuously with U.S. fuel. And second, it is more a difference, if I understand it well, related to freezing temperatures, which are not expected at all to happen during this summer. And by the way, we know that in the U.S., it's more -- usually more colder than it is in Europe. So we have to get an alignment over there so that we have access to jet fuel coming in from the U.S.

The next question comes from Stephen Furlong from Davy.

Would your expectation this year be that the transatlantic, there's certainly going to be a decent element of pricing power given, for example, all the U.S. airlines are unhedged and talking about recapturing an increasing proportion of fuel as they go through the year. And then can I just start with short haul? Maybe it's more of the low-cost sector, but some leisure companies, airlines have reported delays in bookings. And I think some of this is the media comments that there could be cancellations because of lack of fuel. So kind of it's related there to what Ben you said just in the previous question that I think the media commentary on supply is slightly distorted from what is reality. Would you agree with that or not?

Stephen, yes, on long-haul, pricing pressure, yes, we're somewhat hedged whereas U.S. carriers are not. So on the transatlantic, we are and we continue to expect some increased yield versus because of that situation. So that should be positive. However, we are in a JV across the Atlantic. So some of that will be shared with our partner. But yes, that's a positive. In terms of demand, as of yet, we're not seeing any impact from what we expect would be associated with any fear of a lack of fuel and a potential cancellation of flights long haul.

On the short haul, we have quite a bit of exposure with our low-cost carrier, Transavia, to Northern Africa, where the segment of customer is a little bit different. It's a lot of VFR traffic to Algeria, to Tunisia, to Morocco. So the booking patterns and the reasons for travel are quite different than someone doing a city type break. So we're not seeing as of yet any change to those patterns. We do expect depending on what kind of messaging goes out and how customers who take those types of trips might react to the current situation, and we'll probably be in the same position as other low-cost carriers. It is a bit early. We're not seeing anything material yet for the summer. But on a big portion of Transavia's capacity, it is assigned to markets, and we have segments of customers, which don't fall under a typical intra-Europe type segment.

The next question comes from Andrew Lobbenberg from Barclays.

Can I come back to the 2 acquisitions? I know you were asked already about TAP. But how are your thoughts about that transaction in the context that we're limited to a minority stake at the moment? How concerned are you about it being a minority? And then can you talk to us a little bit about SAS? I know the competition policy process evolves, but I think they're unhedged. So does that mean that you get them for a very advantageous price since I think the price was just straightforwardly linked to their EBITDA. So a little bit on that.

And then if I can hop in on, I think, the question that Harry asked, which is Asia and the unit revenue win for you had over 30% in March, you told us. How are those Asia unit revenues looking in April? And how quickly do you expect them to drop away? As Harry said, the Gulf carriers have got a lot of planes in the sky even if they're quite empty.

Let me start. So yes, on SAS, as you know, we have an EBITDA multiple -- and let's say, it's based on the net debt. So for sure, the current circumstances have an impact on the price, but we also agreed a minimum price with the private equity firms. So that is also in place. So we cannot get the company for 0 if that is your expectations. And then if we go to April, then on April, you will -- we have -- indeed, we see the same trend as what we have seen in March. So that is -- so there's no impact indeed yet from anything for booking away to the Middle East carriers. But of course, receipts are available and they will be put in the market. The question mark is how many people are taking that route at this moment. But up to April, we didn't see any impact of that from books.

Andrew, in terms of maintaining yields as we've seen on Asia, I think what's been -- what is turning out to be a great opportunity for us is customers that we did not have or customers that we used to have trying our service, flying nonstop on routes where they may have been making connections before is a good opportunity to acquire customers at a much lower price than if we were just going after them in a regular situation. And it gives a good opportunity for our sales team to leverage Status Match with Flying Blue, et cetera. So it's a great opportunity for our sales team despite this crisis situation to go after new customers that we hope we could keep in the future. So obviously, specifically corporate customers.

Coming back. No, we're not finished yet, Andrew. And then you can come back. So -- and then we had an sorry, there was -- because it was also the question before. So on the jet fuel, so we have hedged, let's say, if you take the 70%, for instance, in Q2, that is the oil package for sure. And then there is a part which is related to the liquids to make out of oil jet fuel, and there we are around 50%. And then you have another question, Andrew?

Yes. No, sorry, I asked first -- actually, I didn't ask about the fuel, but that's interesting. and how you feel about the minority stake rather than the majority.

Yes. So let's say, we cannot say anything about that at this moment. But we know what are the conditions from the Portuguese state, and that is the, let's say, the 45%, which is for sale. So we know what are the conditions from the Portuguese state, and we are in discussions with the Portuguese state how we get back to that.

The next question comes from Antonio Duarte from Goodbody.

The first one is related with the cargo yields. Of course, Q1 impacted the comparable impacted from the frontloading seen in Q1 '25 and also where -- of the unpredictability of cargo yields. But if you could give us some color going into Q2, that would be appreciated. And my second question relates to your unit costs ex fuel, et cetera. In your FY '25 results, you seemed confident that you could aim towards the lower half of your range. And now considering, of course, all the dynamics that have been on over the quarter as well as the Schiphol temporary discount on airport charges. If you could give us some more color in how confident you are regarding this, it would be appreciated.

Yes. Thank you, Antonio. Let's first start on the cargo yields. So the cargo is -- yes, it's always a very short booking window. So that's always -- so it's very difficult to predict exactly the future. We put in place a system that we will recover the fuel part of our revenue. So that is in place at the moment, and it's also what we're expecting. And if you look at where we are at April, we are even slightly better than what we see on the passenger business. But then again, we only have the April numbers in. We can look at the 2 weeks bookings ahead, and then it's still signed. We need to keep in mind that, of course, the Middle East carriers kept their freight are still flying and they're still having also their planes flying and the package is less worrying where to go. So that is true. But of course, people also avoiding the Middle East given the fact that they want speed for the products and they want to be sure that there's no interruption. So for now, we see quite good cargo yields, but the question mark is where it will go further because we don't have any bookings in, but we put in the pricing mechanism towards the market that we will get a part of the fuel increase in -- through our revenues.

Then on the unit cost, I didn't say that we are ending -- so we ended the first quarter at the low end of the range. We still think it will be between 0% and 2%. And of course, we're welcoming the Schiphol discount. So that's helpful for our unit cost. But we are confident with the range we give to 0% to 2%. Of course, if we cut capacity, that has an impact on the unit cost. But at this moment, we don't see that it will have an impact on this range.

Just add one more comment on the unit cost and how that relates to the recent announcement by Schiphol for the temporary reduction in the costs. This is the first positive news we've had in a long time out of the Netherlands when it comes to costs associated with operating at Schiphol the government with taxes and charges at Schiphol. So look at it very warmly. I mean it's very good news. And the discussions we've been having with the Dutch state regarding how we make Schiphol and the Netherlands much more competitive for connectivity is going in a much more positive way than it has in the past. As you know, as we all know, Schiphol and the Dutch state have a long, long history on overperforming from a connection perspective and the value of that and what it brings to the Dutch economy is now at least is being recognized by people who were not in positions of influence in the previous government. So we're really hoping that we can translate that into something that turns positive for us. And then one of the positives, of course, is a lower unit cost.

[Operator Instructions] The next question comes from Marc Zeck from Kepler Cheuvreux.

First, just a clarification. When you discussed the operating results from KLM and Air France separately, it felt like you only -- you said that only for Air France, there was a delay in the fuel cost booking. Is that correct? So for KLM, the operating result is already kind of reflecting March fuel costs? And then related to that, obviously, for the group, with higher revenues that you were already able to harvest, but nonfuel costs not yet reflected, one might say that the results are a bit skewed. So what would be the additional fuel costs in March if they were like booked on the spot without any delay due to contracts or anything? And then the second question, I guess you also heard that one of your U.S. competitors talked about pricing power in the industry in the latest earnings call and said that overall airlines have probably underpriced the services. Would you agree to that? And assuming that fuel prices come down later this year or next year, would you expect that ticket prices will not reflect the fuel price reduction rather stick at higher levels? Or would you expect that ultimately, ticket prices will come down to really reflect the entire potential drop in fuel prices once the crisis is over? That's my question.

Thank you, Marc. Let's first start on the delay in fuel price, sorry. That was not my intention. They both benefit from that delay. So they both have a delay in their systems. So -- and it's actually more or less working the same. So that is not at all my intention to say that KLM didn't benefit from, let's say, the fuel hedges versus the spot. Your question about the spot, the second one at the group level indeed. So just maybe to restate it, maybe I was not totally clear. So if you look at what we paid for the spot, it had an increase of EUR 107 million impact in March. That is the impact and it's in euros. So in dollars, you can increase that number. And then on the hedge, we got back EUR 164 million. So there's a total gain of EUR 57 million, which is reflected in the EUR 86 million, where there's also a part related to till February because we had a positive impact on the fuel price year-over-year up to the end of February. So to make it completely clear, I hope this answers your question.

Then on the pricing power, yes, of course, there is a big relation with the current situation. So it's part of it is the fuel price, and we are quite well hedged compared to, let's say, all the competitors in the world. So in certain areas that we gain, of course, pricing power to increase prices for that reason. But if oil prices and fuel prices are getting back to where they were, I think we get more to the normal pattern what we see, but we still expect that we can increase our unit revenues because we have the premiumization strategy. And we also have the strategy more to gain from our domestic market than from the connecting market. So it's really focused on the premium and to make sure that we, let's say, benefit from that in terms of unit revenues.

There are no more questions at this time. So I hand the conference back to the speakers for closing remarks.

. . . who joined us today. Thank you very much, and we'll see you in 3 months.