Air France KLM's July passenger numbers rise 1.8% year-on-year

PARIS (Reuters) - Air France KLM SA <AIRF.PA> said on Thursday it carried around 10 million passengers last month, up 1.8% from a year ago, boosted by a rise in numbers on its north American networks.

The French carrier's passenger load factor - an industry metric that measures how full are an airline's planes - also rose to 90.7% in July from 90.2% last year.

Last month, Air France-KLM posted a 16% rise in its second-quarter operating profits as new Chief Executive Ben Smith's cost-cutting programme helped offset the impact of rising fuel prices.

(Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta; Editing by Rashmi Aich)