Air France-KLM Royal Dutch Airlines has confirmed it has completed the share capital increases allotted to each of China Eastern Airlines (MU, Shanghai Hongqiao) and Delta Air Lines (DL, Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson) announced late July of this year.

Having secured regulatory and shareholder approval last month, the Franco-Dutch carrier said in a disclosure on October 3 that the 75,054,098 related new shares have been admitted to the regulated market of Euronext Paris and Amsterdam.

As it now stands, the Chinese and US carrier now each hold a 10% stake in Air France-KLM in addition to having one director each appointed to the carrier group's board.

"This operation is an integral part of the Trust Together project, allowing Air France-KLM to regain the offensive, to reinforce its commercial integration with its principal partners, and to continue improving its financial structure," it said.

Ahead of the shareholding change, France's Tribune newspaper reported earlier this week that longstanding talks between Air France-KLM and India's Jet Airways (JAI, Mumbai International) over a proposed joint-venture were now coming to an end with a deal possible by year-end.

Jet Airways already has an existing strategic partnership with KLM wherein the Dutch carrier codeshares on Jet's Amsterdam Schiphol-India and domestic and regional Indian services while Jet, in turn, codeshares on KLM's regional European and transatlantic routes.

Quoting sources close to the discussions, the report said an agreement focussing on flights between Europe and India could be inked as early as next month and stressed that it would likely complement Air France-KLM's existing transatlantic joint-venture with Delta, Alitalia (AZA, Rome Fiumicino), and equity partner, Virgin Atlantic (VS, London Heathrow). It is recalled that as part of the Air France-KLM/Delta/China Eastern tie-up, the Franco-Dutch airline acquired a 31% stake in Virgin Atlantic for GBP220 million (USD287.6 million). The UK carrier is also due to accede to the transatlantic partnership as part of the buy-in.