A record number of passengers carried by KLM in 2019

KLM welcomed a record number of 35.1 million passengers on board in 2019. This represents an increase of 2.7% in comparison with 2018. This level of growth generated a passenger load factor of 89.4% for the year as a whole, representing an increase of 0.3 percentage points compared to 2018. Growth was especially prominent for our destinations in Europe, in North, Central and South America and in Asia.

"Once again today, we find ourselves in a stronger position than a year ago. Offering expanded customer service, we have succeeded in strengthening our worldwide network with the addition of six new destinations. This means that we now serve a total of 171 KLM destinations from Schiphol. In cooperation with our partners, we offer 694 destinations worldwide. And once again, we were able to retain the loyalty of our customers based on the quality and attractiveness of our products and services. The KLM Group (KLM & Transavia) welcomed a record number of 44.3 million passengers on board. This constitutes an incredible milestone, for which I am most grateful to our customers and employees." KLM President & CEO Pieter Elbers.

Carrying 9.2 million passengers in 2019, Transavia succeeded in generating 4.4% growth while maintaining its passenger load factor at the same level. For KLM Cargo, traffic fell by 3.5% in 2019 as a whole, against a marginal capacity increase of 0.2%. Consequently, cargo load factor dipped by 2.5 percentage points. Cargo demand is strongly impacted by factors such as the US-China trade war, the general decrease in worldwide trade and dwindling economic growth.