Strike, slump fail to dent Air France

Air France-KLM Group, Europe's biggest airline, said passenger traffic on long-haul routes increased last month even as the global economy slowed and a strike by pilots grounded planes for four days.

Air France-KLM rose the most in a month in Paris trading after the carrier reported a 0.4 percent gain in long-distance traffic. Overall traffic in November was down only 0.8 percent and the load factor, or proportion of seats filled, slipped 0.1 of a percentage point from a year earlier to 78.3 percent.

"Long-haul traffic held up well," Paris-based Air France- KLM said in a statement. "The load factor was virtually stable. Without the impact of the strike, Air France-KLM would have recorded a rise in both traffic and capacity."