THE HAGUE, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- After a difficult 2016 Air France-KLM recorded a rise of revenue, operating result and passengers in 2017, lifting on a "positive business environment", the Franco-Dutch airline announced on Friday.

Total revenue of Air France-KLM increased to 25.784 billion euros in 2017 (32.177 billion U.S. dollars), from 24.844 billion euros in 2016. In addition, the group's earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) rose to 3.264 billion euros, a major rise compared to the 2.714 euros in 2016. The increases were according to Air France-KLM mainly driven by capacity growth, cost reductions and currency effects.

"Air-France KLM closed 2017 with strong results boosted by a positive business environment," commented Jean-Marc Janaillac, CEO of Air France-KLM, in a press release. "Thanks to the commitment of employees and the continuing focus on the quality of customer service, the group confirmed its leadership position in Europe in traffic terms."

The net result went down to minus 274 million euros, a major decrease compared to the plus 792 million euros of 2016. This net result was impacted by measures to minimize the effects of pilot and cabin pension plans. Excluding these effects the results would have been positive in 2017 as well.

The amount of passengers carried by Air France-KLM went up to almost 99 million passengers in 2017, an increase of 5.6 percent compared to 2016. According to Air France-KLM the passenger business benefitted from a favorable trading environment, capacity growth and more demand.

"As we enter 2018, in a context of rising oil prices and even more intense competition, we will pursue the offensive, work on competitiveness and unit cost reduction, and capitalize on the realizations of 2017 in order to maintain a profitable growth momentum," said CEO Janaillac.