In the first quarter 2019, the Air France-KLM Group posted an operating result of €-303 million, down €185 million compared to last year, which was impacted by the Air France strike for €-75 million. The unit revenue at constant currency of -2.2% compared to last year had a negative impact of €115 million on the operating result. The fuel bill including hedging amounted to €1,201 million for first quarter 2019, up €140 million, of which €44 million is explained by an increase in the fuel price and a volume effect of €34 million for the capacity increase compared to last year. The result of the fuel hedges has been a gain of €35 million. Currencies had a positive €65 million impact on revenues and a negative e108 million on costs including currency hedging. The net impact of currencies thus amounted to a negative €43 million for first quarter 2019.
On a constant currency and fuel price basis, unit costs were down -0.4% in the first quarter 2019, driven in particular by the decrease in customer compensations compared to first quarter 2018 that was marked by the strikes in Air France However this was partly offset by KLM unit cost which were impacted by a 1.3% lower than planned capacity due to weather and technical reasons.
The Group generated positive adjusted operating free cash flow of €241 million, an increase of €99 million compared to last year, mainly explained by a lower capex in the first quarter 2019 due to a year-over-year shift in investment timing pattern.
