Air France-KLM group full year results for 2014 reveal flat revenues of €24.9 billion and EBITDA of €1.5 billion, down €266 million. Excluding last year’s damaging strike, EBITDA rose €159 million to €2 billion. The adjusted net result was a loss of €535 million.

Aside from various earlier announcements on restructuring of the cargo division, little more was revealed at the annual results briefing. “I won’t dwell on cargo,” said chief financial officer Pierre-Francois Riolacci in a results webcast. “Despite restructuring, unit revenues were continually in decline and it was not sufficient to reverse the trend.”

More detailed figures show that with a 2.3 per cent reduction in cargo capacity last year, tonnage fell by a greater 2.9 per cent. Load factors fell modestly while total cargo revenues declined by 4.8 per cent with unit revenue per ATK down two per cent, while unit cost per ATK fell 1.3 per cent, for a cargo division operating loss of €202 million.

With full freighter capacity falling by seven per cent last year, the carrier earlier said it is speeding up the phasing out of nine freighters, to operate just five by the end of next year which, if things go according to plans, will lead to breaking even by 2017.