By Pierre Bertrand

The Dutch wing of Air France-KLM cut 250 office jobs as part of its plan to reduce costs and lift profitability.

KLM Royal Dutch Airlines said Wednesday that the positions affected were in non-operational roles. The works council and trade union had been informed in advance, the airline said.

"It is crucial for our future to structurally lower costs, which involves making painful choices. One of these measures is reducing the number of non-operational jobs, where we will try to avoid forced layoffs, although we cannot rule this out in advance," Chief Executive Marjan Rintel said.

The Netherlands' flagship carrier in October said it intended to shore up its operations and finances with measures designed to improve its operating result by 450 million euros ($469.4 million) in the short term.

KLM has been wrestling with high costs and equipment and staff shortages as it dedicates $1 billion to renewing its fleet.

Air France-KLM said in November that the growth of KLM's costs in the third quarter outpaced its 3.6% revenue growth due to an increase in staff expenses.

According to its 2023 annual report, KLM employs more than 35,000 staff.

Write to Pierre Bertrand at pierre.bertrand@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 29, 2025 04:49 ET (09:49 GMT)

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