THE “strategic partnership” in air freight between Air France-KLM and CMA CGM, established in May 2022 and effective since April 2023, was struggling so much that it will stop on March 31, 2024. The Franco-Dutch airline and the third global container ship owner announced this on Tuesday, January 16, in two press releases with identical terms. They justify it by “a constrained regulatory environment in certain important markets”notably the United States, which “ did not allow cooperation to function optimally.”
Rodolphe Saadé, CEO of the Marseille giant which holds 9% of the capital of the Franco-Dutch group, will leave the board of directors of Air France-KLM on March 31, since the two companies are once again becoming competitors. CMA CGM is the third shareholder of Air France-KLM, behind the French State (28.6%) and the Dutch State (9.3%), ahead of China Eastern Airlines (4.7%) and the American Delta Air Lines (2.9%).
For the moment, the new agreement provides that the shipowner retains its participation until February 28, 2025. But the two partners removed the clause which provided that it had to keep 50% of its shares until June 15, 2028 – a sign of its probable withdrawal next year. From now on, “each group will operate independently”indicate their press releases, even if they “remain committed to working collaboratively, so that cargo customers can continue to benefit from their respective networks”.
“Complementarity of skills”
It was a dispute between the Dutch government and the American authorities, in a context of strong trade tensions between Europe and the United States, which led to the amicable divorce, explains a source close to the matter. For antitrust reasons, CMA CGM Air Cargo planes were not authorized to serve the United States from Amsterdam-Schiphol, Europe’s third largest airport, since its partner was already associated with Virgin Atlantic and Delta Air Lines, a consortium weighing heavily on air freight across the Atlantic. This obstacle deprived CMA CGM of opportunities in a strategic market where it has strengthened over the past two years by purchasing terminals in the ports of Los Angeles-Long Beach and New York-New Jersey.
The partnership made industrial sense – while responding to a financial emergency – between a shipowner-logistician enriched by the surge in freight rates during the Covid-19 pandemic (40 billion euros in profits in 2021-2022) and a group very weakened by a devastating health crisis for air transport in 2020-2021. Their agreement provided for joint operation of their all-cargo aircraft, including six for CMA CGM (and six others on order).
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