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Benjamin Smith

Chief Executive Officer, Air France-KLM

Search every verified Benjamin Smith interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. Benjamin Smith, CEO of Air France-KLM, discussed the airline's focus on premium travel offerings in a September 2026 interview. He described the company's efforts to enhance its first-class product, Le Premier, which recently won a Skytrax award for best first class in the world, and mentioned plans to improve business and economy cabins. Smith stated that flying is "glamorous if you do it right" and that France's strengths in food, fashion, and cosmetics provide ingredients for the airline's premium strategy. During the company's second-quarter 2026 earnings call in July, Smith reported a nearly 10% increase in group revenues to 9.3 billion euros, supported by robust passenger demand with over 28 million customers traveling. He noted that higher fuel costs from the Middle East conflict added approximately 900 million euros to the fuel bill, but the company recaptured about 86% of that increase through commercial performance and cost management. Smith also announced that Air France-KLM had submitted a binding offer to acquire a strategic stake of up to 49.9% in TAP Air Portugal, with plans to make Lisbon the group's unique hub in southern Europe to expand connectivity to growth markets such as South America, Brazil, and Africa.

Recent appearances

Notable quotes

“We're forecasting an increase of approximately 2.1 billion through the end of the year. So, to put that into context, our operating income last year was 2 billion. Uh, so to have an incremental cost net of uh, reduction in demand or balancing of demand with increase in cost using our models, we expect that it's going to be extremely extremely expensive.”

“We have no problem competing with any airline around the world. We're not looking for any protection. We're not looking for any presence. However, we're in a global business and we expect the jurisdictions that regulate us and impose taxes or charges do ensure that we're operating in a level playing field.”

“Well, first off, if the fuel significantly spikes, we're going to have to raise ticket prices to compensate for that. And when you raise ticket prices, there'll be less demand. So the need for the full capacity that we had planned is probably not going to be going to be the case.”

“Well, first off, if the fuel significantly spikes, we're going to have to raise ticket prices to compensate for that. And when you raise ticket prices, there'll be less demand. So the need for the full capacity that we had planned is probably not going to be going to be the case.”

“Well, first off if the fuel significantly spikes we're going to have to raise ticket prices to compensate for that. And when you raise ticket prices there'll be there'll be less demand. So the need for the full capacity that we had planned is probably not going to be going to be the case.”

“I think it's a it's another example of how dependent Europe is and European customers are on flying over the Gulf to destinations that I think could support more nonstop service. You know, with an unlevel playing field, you've got companies that are based in the Gulf that have been able to attract a big portion of the European demand via the Gulf.”

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