Amid the Middle East instability, Air France KLM is increasing its flights to North Africa

After the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, Air France KLM announced on Tuesday that there has been little demand for leisure travel to Egypt and Jordan, forcing the airline to reallocate a significant amount of its capacity to North Africa.

During a conference call with analysts, CEO Ben Smith stated that while the airline is “cautiously optimistic” about the recovery of demand for flights to Beirut and Tel Aviv, the number of flights to southern Egypt and Jordan is still far below what it was in October.

Since Israel and Hamas began fighting in October, there has been a decline in the desire for travel worldwide.

Since the start of the war, airlines have halted hundreds of flights to and from Tel Aviv, as well as some to Lebanon and Jordan, and the fighting has also negatively impacted traveler numbers in the area.

Due to security concerns and airspace and airport closures brought on by Israel’s alleged attack on Iran earlier this month, international airlines were also compelled to adjust their flight paths over Iran, cancel some flights, divert others to different airports, or return their aircraft to the original points of departure.

The company stated in a statement that yields, or average revenues per passenger, were down 6.9% in the first quarter due to a large capacity increase and geopolitical disruptions in Asia and the Middle East.

“We maintain a cautious optimism that Tel Aviv and Beirut will return to their pre-October levels. The leisure markets in Jordan and Southern Egypt are rather different from one another; they haven’t returned to their pre-October levels, according to Smith.

“We moved a sizable amount of that capacity to different markets. And fortunately for (low-cost unit) Transavia, Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia are Northern African nations where we have a lot of opportunities. Thus, that has at least allowed us to stick to our Transavia forecast,” he continued.