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Case study

Air France-KLM goes Agile

2 min read
December 18, 2025
Air France-KLM goes Agile

One of Europe’s largest passenger airline groups, Air France – KLM operates up to 2,200 flights daily and carries over 93 million passengers annually. The company’s five airlines—Air France, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, Transavia, HOP! Air France and Joon—cover 320 destinations across 114 countries.

“We wanted to experiment and demonstrate Agile principles and practices across domains. By empowering each business domain, acknowledging specific contexts in domains, fostering sharing, and ‘try and learn,’ SAFe has helped us get on the right track to success.“


Customer challenge

Air France – KLM sought to scale Agile practices companywide to improve time to market and efficiency, but must contend with specific contexts and regulations in the different businesses of the airlines.

Solution and Approach

SAFe®

In a highly competitive industry, where information systems can be strategic competitive assets, Air France – KLM set out to reduce its time-to-market with business applications. To do so, the company decided to improve the business/IT collaboration by breaking down silos and expanding Lean-Agile practices.

Achieving its goals would require bringing together diverse cultures at French and Dutch offices, as well as contending with diverse contexts, operational constraints or regulations across the different business domains.

Outcome

  • SAFe teams released 17 times in the live environment in seven months compared to every six months previously

  • On average, SAFe teams release 20% more effectively than waterfall teams

  • The company gained 20% market share in the small and medium logistics market alone

  • On one offering, the company exceeded expectation by 25%

  • Air France – KLM is more intimate with its clients

“Before, in moving from waterfall to Agile, we were not able to make the leap on a broader scale.“

 

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