{"id":666205,"date":"2026-01-01T05:37:17","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T05:37:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/666205\/"},"modified":"2026-01-01T05:37:17","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T05:37:17","slug":"china-europe-travel-markets-resilience-keeps-air-france-klm-optimistic-despite-headwinds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/666205\/","title":{"rendered":"China-Europe travel market\u2019s resilience keeps Air France-KLM optimistic despite headwinds"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Despite China-EU trade frictions, Paris and other European cities remain the top destinations for <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/economy\/china-economy\/article\/3334242\/chinese-tourism-russia-soars-travellers-pivot-under-fire-japan?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"noopener\">Chinese travellers<\/a>, with growing <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/opinion\/world-opinion\/article\/3335838\/france-and-china-are-testing-alternative-zero-sum-diplomacy?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"noopener\">China-France<\/a> trade and visa-free entry spurring companies like Air France-KLM to explore new opportunities.The Franco-Dutch airline group reported strong inbound demand from Europe in 2025, driven by <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/economy\/china-economy\/article\/3337089\/china-eases-visa-rules-india-tapping-us216-billion-travel-market?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"noopener\">China\u2019s visa-free policy<\/a> for travellers from more than 30 European nations, covering both business and leisure segments.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">In the first three quarters, the company posted a 6 per cent year-on-year increase in unit revenue from its Asian market, with a passenger load factor of 89 per cent, according to its earnings.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cThese are very healthy financial figures,\u201d said Steven van Wijk, Greater China general manager at Air France-KLM. \u201cOur approach is to remain flexible and responsive, ensuring we can continue to serve the China-Europe market even in a challenging environment, and we are working closely with our Chinese partners to capture new opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The underlying China-Europe market was robust, said van Wijk, who relocated to Beijing several months ago. \u201cI\u2019m optimistic about the future prospects. I\u2019m also highly confident in the Chinese market and the two-way trade relations,\u201d he said. \u201cOur commitment to China is long-term.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"The company has seen strong demand on China-Europe routes for both leisure and business travel. Photo: AFP\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1gf69pb2 css-6ikqhs e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/3984147f-9396-4ae8-b5ae-ad1fce63dca2_741ac6ff.jpg\" title=\"The company has seen strong demand on China-Europe routes for both leisure and business travel. Photo: AFP\"\/>The company has seen strong demand on China-Europe routes for both leisure and business travel. Photo: AFP<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">His confidence is underpinned by the growing China-France trade ties and the sustained rise in travel demand from Chinese tourists.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Despite China-EU trade frictions, Paris and other European cities remain the top destinations for Chinese travellers, with growing&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":666206,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5174],"tags":[59162,1476,11410,3801,1395,77709,16536,2000,299,5187,36,143082,3749,1477,1411,332,10741],"class_list":{"0":"post-666205","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eu","8":"tag-air-france-klm","9":"tag-amsterdam","10":"tag-asia-pacific","11":"tag-beijing","12":"tag-china","13":"tag-china-europe","14":"tag-chinese","15":"tag-eu","16":"tag-europe","17":"tag-european","18":"tag-france","19":"tag-greater-china","20":"tag-hong-kong","21":"tag-netherlands","22":"tag-paris","23":"tag-russia","24":"tag-shanghai"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115818230247727190","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666205","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=666205"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666205\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/666206"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=666205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=666205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=666205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}