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00:00IS THE EUROPEAN CLOSE ON BLOOMBERG MARKETS, 15 MINUTES UNTIL THE FINISH OF THE TUESDAY SESSION. FLIGHT STATS OUT WITH ITS ANNUAL LIST OF INTERNATIONAL AIRLINES WITH THE BEST AND WORST ON TIME OR PERFORMANCE AND THE WORST CATEGORY, ICELAND AIR AND AIR INDIA WITH THE HIGHEST PERCENTAGES OF FLIGHT ARRIVING MORE THAN 15 MINUTES LATE. EL AL MORE THAN HALF THE FLIGHTS WERE LATE AND THE BEST WORK KLM AND JAL. KLM IS TOP OF THE PILE ACCORDING TO FLIGHT STATS. JOINING US FROM AMSTERDAM IS THE CEO OF KLM. THANK YOU FOR JOINING US TODAY. HOW DO YOU KEEP YOUR FLIGHTS -- THE NUMBER OF YOUR FLIGHTS DELAYED SO LOW? PIETER: WE WORK HARD TO MAKE THAT HAPPEN AND WE DO THINGS WITH TOOLS AND PROCESSES AND PEOPLE WHO ARE ALL COMMITTED TO MAKE SURE WE DELIVER THE BEST PERFORMANCE TO CUSTOMERS. MARK: DOES THIS DATA MATTER TO YOU, BEING NUMBER ONE IN THE ON-TIME STATISTICS? PIETER: OF COURSE IT MATTERS. IT MATTERS FOR OUR CUSTOMERS. THEY ARE VERY EXCITED ABOUT THIS . OUR PEOPLE WORK EVERY DAY OF THE YEAR VERY HARD TO MAKE SURE WE DO A ON-TIME PERFORMANCE AND IF AN INDEPENDENT COMPANY LIKE FLIGHT STATS IS RECOGNIZING YOU AS THE BEST IN THE WORLD, WE ARE VERY EXCITED AND PROUD OF THAT. MARK: DOES IT TRANSLATE TO MORE TRAFFIC OR NOT? PIETER: FOR OUR CUSTOMERS AND PASSENGERS IT IS VERY IMPORTANT, ESPECIALLY THOSE FLYING ON A TIGHT SCHEDULE. FOR US, COMING FROM A SMALL COUNTRIES WITH CONNECTING TRAVEL IT IS IMPORTANT WE RUN SUCH A RELIABLE OPERATION. MARK: WHEN IT COMES TO TRAFFIC , LAST YEAR YOUR PASSENGER TALLY ROSE BY 6.4% TO 30.4 MILLION, WILL YOU BE THAT IN 2017 -- BEAT THAT IN 2017? PIETER: WE WILL WORK HARD, THE 30 MILLION WE HIT IN 2016 WAS A RECORD FOR OUR COMPANY. IN THESE 97 YEARS, WE BUILT IT FROM A SMALL COMPANY TO WHERE WE ARE TODAY AND COMMITTED TO CONTINUING THAT BY ADDING NEW DESTINATIONS NEXT YEAR AND WELCOMING MORE CUSTOMERS ABOARD OUR AIRCRAFT. MARK: AT THE SAME TIME, AIR FRANCE PASSENGER TALLY FELL BY ROUGHLY 691,000. BUT YOU HAVE TO CONTINUE TO UPSET THE DECLINING PERFORMANCE THAT YOUR MERGER PARTNER -- OF YOUR MERGER PARTNER? PIETER: THERE WAS RESTRUCTURING IN AIR FRANCE, IF YOU LOOK AT THE LONG HAUL NUMBERS, THE TRENDS ARE COMPARABLE, ESPECIALLY SOME OF THE RESTRUCTURING OF THE MEDIUM NETWORK. IF WE LOOK TO THE COMBINED PERFORMANCE OF AIR FRANCE AND KLM, THE FIGURES ARE MUCH MORE ALIGNED. MARK: OTHER DATA ON PASSENGER TRAFFIC, BLOOMBERG HAS WRITTEN ABOUT, THE NUMBER OF CUSTOMERS MULTIPLIED BY CUSTOMERS FLOWN. LUFTHANSA IS HANGING ONTO YOUR COATTAILS, THEY ARE CLOSING THE GAP, CAN YOU STAY AHEAD? PIETER: IT IS DEFINITELY WHAT WE ARE GOING TO TRY AND WORK VERY HARD FOR. A PUNCTUAL OPERATION IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT FOR US AND WE HAVE PUT ALL HER RESOURCES AND WE ARE ALIGNED TO MAKE SURE WE CONTINUE ON THE SAME TRACK THIS YEAR. MARK: WHEN IT COMES TO ISSUES AT AIR FRANCE-KLM, SEEM TO BE ON THE AIR FRANCE SIDE, A MANAGEMENT SHAKEUP AND A NINE POINT BUSINESS PLAN RELEASED BY THE NEW CEO. IS HE GOING TO BE ABLE TO SQUEEZE MORE EFFICIENCY OUT OF THE COMPANY, YOU ARE FACING COMPETITION FROM THE DISCOUNT CARRIERS, FACING MORE THREATS FROM THE GULF. . -- THE GULF CARRIERS. PIETER: THE AIRLINE WORLD IS CHANGING RAPIDLY IN THE LAST COUPLE OF YEARS AND AS A CONSOLIDATED ENTITY OF AIR FRANCE-KLM, WE ARE READY TO BE PART OF THAT CONSOLIDATED WORLD. IF WE LOOK TO THE WORLD AROUND US AND DEALING WITH BIG PARTNERS IN THE U.S. WHERE WE HAVE A GREAT OPERATION WITH DELTA, IT IS IMPORTANT TO BE A PART OF A LARGER ENTITY AND WITHIN THAT LARGER ENTITY OF AIR FRANCE-KLM, WE ARE DOING -- THEY ARE DOING THEIR PART OF THE RESTRUCTURING WHICH IS NECESSARY TO END UP WITH THE CHANGES. MARK: HOW ARE HIGHER OIL PRICES GOING TO HIT YOUR MARGINS THIS YEAR, CRUDE OIL CLOSED AT AN 18 MONTH HIGH, HOW ARE YOU HEDGED GOING FORWARD? PIETER: I AM NOT IN A POSITION TODAY TO GIVE ANY GUIDANCE ON THE FINANCIAL SIDE, WE WILL PUBLISH OUR ANNUAL RESULTS IN FEBRUARY. I WOULD NOT LIKE TO COMMEND -- COMMENT ON THE FINANCIALS. MARK: WHAT YOU MAY BE ABLE TO COMMENT ON IS THE FACT THAT AS A COMPANY, ESPECIALLY YOUR MERGER PARTNER AIR FRANCE, STRIKE THREATS AN ISSUE OVERHANGING THAT SIDE OF THE COMPANY. IS THERE A SENSE OF FRUSTRATION WHEN IT COMES TO THE KLM SIDE, THAT MAY AIR FRANCE IS HOLDING YOU BACK WHEN IT COMES TO AN ISSUE LIKE THIS? PIETER: OBVIOUSLY, BOTH CURRENT -- COMPANIES ARE DOING THEIR PART OF THE RESTRUCTURING AND THE PHILOSOPHY WITHIN THE GROUP -- IF YOU ARE ABLE TO MAKE THAT PHILOSOPHY, IF YOU ARE ABLE TO MAKE THE RESTRUCTURING EFFECTIVE

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KLM Tops List for On-Time Performance: FlightStats

Pieter Elbers, chief executive officer at KLM, discusses being named as the top international airline for on-time performance by FlightStats, passenger traffic and competition in the industry. He speaks with Bloomberg's Mark Barton on "Bloomberg Markets: European Close." (Source: Bloomberg)

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