The carrier said it recorded a further rise in yield, excluding currency effects, "underpinned by premium traffic which remained robust".

The group carried a total of 6.8 million passengers in June, up 1.3 percent. tfn.paris@thomsonreuters.com gt/jlw/gt/slj

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On the Americas network, traffic rose 2.3% with capacity up 4.8%. The load factor decreased 2.1 points to 86.5%. The Asia network saw traffic rise by 2.1% with capacity up 7.1% and the load factor falling 4.1 points to 83.3%.

The traffic on the European network was up 1.9% and capacity increased by 1.8%, while load factor remained stable at 75.2% in June 2008. In June 2008, cargo traffic declined by 1.5% with a 1.8% rise in capacity. The load factor fell 2.2 points to 65.4%.

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It is claimed that the venture is likely to use China Southern's existing fleet of planes, including the all-cargo Boeings that are to be delivered by 2009.

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"KLM in fact has been flying into Malaysia since 1934 when it had weekly flights into Alor Setar but this has evolved into direct flights from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur which has been enjoying a good load factor since we began back in 1991. We have progressively increased our flights over the years," he told reporters following the celebrations at the KL International Airport (KLIA).

In 1994 KLM increased the frequency of their direct flights to three times a week and the fourth weekly flight in 1999 and by November, 2000 KLM had started offering daily flights between Kuala Lumpur and Amsterdam, he said.

KLM recognises the increasing draw of Kuala Lumpur as a tourism and business destination for travellers coming out of Europe because of its vibrancy and strong economic growth and KLM is able to provide convenient connections for their passengers heading to Kuala Lumpur, he said.

Meanwhile, Razali Daud, deputy director general of Tourism Malaysia said with more than 20 million tourist arrivals in 2007, travel and tourism was one of the fastest growing economic sectors in terms of job creation.

The World Economic Forum's Travel and Tourism Competitiveness report 2007 has hailed Malaysia's good ground transport infrastructure and excellent price competitiveness in terms of its low ticket taxes, airport charges, low comparative fuel prices and favourable tax regime, he said.

KLM, which carried 73.5 million passengers for its financial year in 2006, is the oldest airline in the world still operating under its original name. The airline also won the KLIA awards for Best Carrier of the year by sector - Europe and best Foreign Carrier in 2005 and 2006.

In May 2004 KLM merged with Air France resulting in the creation of the world's largest airline group by turnover and a world leader in its three core businesses - passenger transport, cargo transport, engineering and maintenance.

(BERNAMA-OANA)