Declaring the financial results at a press conference here on Thursday, Gerard Petit, general manager of the airline for India, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, said while the operating revenue increased by 13.5 per cent to 10.3 billion euros, the operating profit was up by 34.1 per cent to 358 million euros during the year.

"The performance illustrates the quality of our airline and charts the future growth prospect," Petit said highlighting the popularity of the airline among Asian nations, including India.

He said the load factor on Asian routes increased by 3.3 points to 81.8 per cent. Traffic grew by 4.5 per cent despite a rather stable capacity offered in the previous year. Revenue on Asian routes also increased to 16.7 per cent, pointing to a healthy financial situation of the airline. This was despite very high increase in fuel costs. One of the major factors pushing up profitability was a three billion franc costing-cutting programme, Petit said.

Asserting that the just-concluded skyteam alliance with Aeromexico, Delta Airlines and Korean Air will further push up Air France's profitability , Petit said Air France carried 39.8 million passengers during 1999-2000, up by 7.6 per cent. Traffic in revenue passenger-kms rose by 12.1 per cent as against 11.2 per cent the previous year. Within the association of European airlines, Air France increased its market share in terms of traffic to 14.9 per cent compared with the last year's figure of 14.2 per cent. For the fifth consecutive year, the passenger load factor went up, now standing at 76.1 per cent whereas the average dropped in cases of most of the European carriers, Petit claimed.

He said the alliance with Delta signed in June last year was now operational. It has led substantial increase in flights to US (28 additional flights to be precise) and the opening of new routes in profitable conditions, he added.