Airline Air France-KLM is poised to announce a new round of cost saving measures on Friday, the Financieele Dagblad reports on Friday.

The paper bases its claims on an interview with board member Peter Hartman. The French-Dutch airline is due to report its second quarter results at the end of the week.

‘The problem is air travel over short distances, basically in Europe,’ Hartman is quoted as saying. ‘Something has to be done and it is important to move quickly.’

Hartman, who is deputy chairman of the board, did not want to give any details about how the cuts introduced last year are to be ‘sharpened up’, the paper said.

The current package of measures includes a €2bn structural saving per year, of which half will have to be generated by KLM. So far 5,000 jobs have gone at Air France. KLM has managed to head off compulsory redundancies by a pay and vacancy freeze.