Air France Loss Heightens Pressure to Secure Union Cuts Deal

Air France-KLM Group said its first-quarter loss widened as fuel costs and a drop in freight volumes wiped out benefits from gains in passenger traffic, increasing pressure to secure cost cuts from unions by a June deadline.

The operating loss widened to 597 million euros ($785 million) from 403 million euros a year earlier, Europe’s biggest airline said in a statement today. That’s bigger than the 510 million-euro loss predicted by analysts in a Bloomberg survey.