Air France Reveals How Much Money it Lost From the Olympics
Skift Take
For Air France, Paris 2024 is a marathon rather than a sprint. The financial impact of a one-off ‘hosting hit’ should be comfortably absorbed by longer term benefits for the brand.Air France insists it is playing the long game after a costly Olympic Games. The French flag carrier – part of the Air France-KLM Group – posted its third-quarter earnings Thursday and quantified the negative financial impact from the Paris event.
The Olympics cost the firm €160 million ($173 million), weighing heavily on its operating income for the all-important June-September quarter. A bonus pot of around €50 million ($54 million) to Air France staff “rewarding strong operational performance” during the Games was a significant one-off cost.
Net profit at AF-KLM was down 13% year-on-year to €824 million ($891 million), with Group CEO, Ben Smith, acknowledging that earnings were “significantly affected” by the event.
Large events like the Olympics can be disruptive rather t
