PARIS, July 9 (Xinhua) -- Passenger traffic of Europe's leading airline Air France-KLM was up by 4.5 percent last month from the same period a year earlier, the airline said on Monday.

In spite of strike action by the company's pilots, crew and ground staff that forced the CEO to resign in May, the group, comprising the Air France KLM, Hop! and Transavia networks, numbered 9.3 million passengers at the end of June, with the load factor standing at 89.3 percent, up by 1.6 percentage points, the group's monthly data showed.

June's traffic rise stemmed mainly from 7.7 percent rise in flights to and from Latin American destinations and 5.1 percent growth recorded to and from Asian destinations.

As to cargo activity, the Franco-Dutch joint venture recorded a 3.2-percent rise in traffic and gained 1.6 percentage point in its load factor to 59.2 percent.