KLM does not comply with the conditions that the government has attached to the state aid that the company received to get through the corona crisis. An independent supervisor has concluded this, write Minister of Finance Sigrid Kaag (D66) and Minister of Infrastructure and Water Management Mark Harbers (VVD) on Sunday evening. in a letter to the Senate. The airline is especially negligent in living up to its promise to structurally reduce its costs by 15 percent.
To reduce expenditure, KLM must take measures that will save up to more than 400 million euros from 2024, but these have not yet been announced. More has been spent in recent months, concludes the supervisor. Two weeks ago, for example, a 5 percent pay increase was announced for employees, about which the regulator had not been informed and with which the company does not meet the support conditions. KLM writes in a comment that ‘in all collective labor agreements the stipulated employment condition contribution has been met’.
Share issue
An earlier report from the regulator already showed in January that KLM facilitates tax avoidance by pilots and cabin crew who live abroad. In March, the company reported that a working group had been set up to take measures, but now it appears that the working group has been disbanded without result. KLM says that employees abroad “use the home-work arrangement” of the company. According to the company, the working group that was set up earlier had been put on hold and has now started up again.
The Dutch government supported KLM in the first months of the corona crisis with 3.4 billion euros in bank guarantees. Of that, just under a billion has been used. Last week, KLM announced with partner Air France that it would release 1.9 billion in new shares, which should yield 2.26 billion euros. The Netherlands wants to add 220 million euros to maintain the 9.3 percent interest and thus participation. The company wrote at the time that the issue was intended to “liberate itself from the conditions imposed” of the state aid received. At the beginning of this month, KLM announced a first repayment of the aid of 311 million euros to the Dutch government.
Also read: Air France-KLM finds fresh capital, issues 1.9 billion new shares