Airline Revenue Economics

The influences of network design at Air France-KLM

2026-03-06 · 07:31 UTC ·Oliver Ranson ·3 min read

Brief

Air France-KLM's network analysis over 9–15 March 2026 (using OAG Schedules Analyser) finds clear colonial-era influences: 32.5% of Air France flights and 16.2% of KLM flights serve former colonies/overseas territories, but capacity (seats and ASK) shifts the balance between carriers. Routes were classified by empire and by 'glamorous' versus 'trade' destinations; fifth‑freedom traffic was weighted at 0.5.

Why it matters

For the week 9–15 March 2026 (OAG Schedules Analyser), 32.5% of Air France flights were to former French colonies/overseas departments, accounting for 28.8% of seats and 20.3% of Available Seat Kilometres (ASK).

Key details

  • In the same week KLM scheduled 16.2% of flights to former Dutch colonies, representing 17.5% of seats and 17.1% of ASK; fifth‑freedom sectors were counted as half a flight/seat in the analysis.
Source evidence

title: The influences of network design at Air France-KLM
author: Oliver Ranson
contenttype: article
publication: Airline Revenue Economics
published: 2026-03-06T07:31:11+00:00
sourceurl: https://revman.substack.com/p/the-influences-of-network-design

word_count: 679

Delft Blue houses are a KLM signature. The Dutch flag carrier has been handing them out to their long-haul Business Class passengers since the 1950s. The iconic ceramics are in the shape of historic Dutch buildings and filled with gin. The little houses are intended to reflect Dutch history, culture and tradition. I hope to pick up one each way when I fly KLM for the first time in a few weeks. Which got me thinking. Airline networks are shaped a great deal by the history of their home country. Especially in the old world. So I decided to investigate the influences of history on the Air France-KLM group’s network design. In particular I wanted to investigate whether economic history or home country culture matters more for airline network design. I analysed the data to answer two questions: Q1. To what extent are today’s airlines serving their home country’s former colonial possessions? Q2. Is Air France shaped by glitz and glamour and KLM shaped by finance and trade? Advertisement: This article was written using data from OAG Schedules Analyser: visit oag.com. Thanks OAG! The two countries are quite different, culturally speaking. France is flamboyant and known for it’s love of culture, cuisine and couture. The Netherlands is a bit more direct. Both nations were built on long-distance trade. Data & methodology I took a look at both airlines’ networks next week (9-Mar-2026 to 15-Mar-2026) using OAG schedule empire. I classified their non-European destinations as follows: Former Dutch colonial empire: Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao, Formosa (Taiwan), Indonesia, Sint Maarten, South Africa, Suriname Sabe & Sint Eustatius are not served by Air France-KLM next week I did not include Dutch trading posts elsewhere in the Caribbean, Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, South-East Asia & Japan that were not formally part of the Dutch empire. I did not count former Netherlands possessions like New York (New Amsterdam) in North America French overseas departments: French Guyana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Reunion Air France-KLM does not appear to fly to Mayotte in Comoros next week Former French colonial empire: Algeria, Benin, Cameroon, Chad, Congo, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Guinea, Lebanon, Madagascar, Mauritania, Mauritius, Morocco, Senegal, Togo, Tunisia, Vietnam Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Central African Republic, Cote d’Ivoire, French Polynesia, Guinea-Bissau, Laos, Mali, New Caledonia, Niger, Saint Barthelemy, Saint Martin & Syria are not served by Air France-KLM next week. I did not count former French possessions in North America (Louisiana and Quebec) as part of the former French empire Fifth freedom flights carry passengers between two third-party countries as part of a mission starting or finishing in either France or Netherlands. These are counted as half a flight. Seats on these planes are counted as half a seat. Q1. To what extent are today’s airlines serving their home country’s former colonial possessions? Here are the results: Just under a third of Air France flights are scheduled to head off to the former French empire and current overseas departments. Roughly a sixth of KLM flights serve the former Dutch empire. Interestingly, when capacity is considered the two airlines move in opposite directions. 32.5% of Air France flights serve overseas France and former French colonies, but only 28.8% of seats and 20.3% of Available Seat Kilometres (ASK) serve the same markets. Meanwhile at KLM, 16.2% of flights are to the former Dutch empire, but 17.5% of seats and 17.1% of ASK serve the same markets. Q2. Is Air France shaped by glitz and glamour and KLM shaped by finance and trade? I classified the following destinations as glamorous: Dubai, Buenos Aires, Bridgetown Barbados, Rio de Janeiro, Shanghai, Singapore, New York (Newark and JFK), Las Vegas, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco I thought that these were the sort of places that influencers might hang out. Do you agree? Answers on a postcard… The other destinations were all classified as ‘trade’. Note that all the glamorous routes are going to have a large amount of trade traffic associated with them as well. Now here is the same table as before, but with glamorous and trade destinations split out. Read more