OREANDA-NEWS. In August the airlines in the Lufthansa Group carried 3.4 per cent more passengers than in the same month last year. Thus the load factor for the passenger aircraft climbed by 1.6 percentage points to 85.4 per cent (previous year: 83.8 per cent). Overall, 10.1 million passengers decided to fly with Lufthansa, Germanwings, Swiss or Austrian Airlines in August. The main reason for the planes’ improved load factor was the flexible management of capacity and sales. The Group increased sales (measured in revenue seat-kilometres) in the passenger business by 4.3 per cent and capacity (in available seat-kilometres) by 2.3 per cent. The summer holidays added to the increased load factor in Europe (+1.9 percentage points). In the Middle East/Africa traffic region the fasting month of Ramadan had a positive effect on the load factor. Here the Group recorded a year-on-year rise of 2.7 percentage points. 

The traffic regions America and Europe reported the fastest growth rates for passenger numbers in the Group. Growth was slowest in the Middle East/Africa traffic region. Both sales and load factor were positive here too, however, as they were in the Asia/Pacific traffic region.

Among the Group’s passenger airlines it was Lufthansa German Airlines, which also includes Germanwings and Lufthansa Regional, which saw the fastest rises in August in passenger numbers (+3.9 per cent), capacity (+2.5 per cent) and sales (+4.8 per cent). A total of 7.3 million passengers flew with Lufthansa and Germanwings in August. The companies increased their load factor by 1.9 percentage points to 84.7 per cent. In the traffic regions Europe and America, Lufthansa German Airlines reported the fastest growth rates for passenger numbers (Europe +4.0 per cent, America +5.6 per cent), sales (Europe +6.6 per cent, America +5.9 per cent) and load factor (Europe +2.4 percentage points, America +1.1 percentage point). 

Swiss improved its passenger load factor in August by 1.1 percentage point to 88.3 per cent. The company carried 1.7 million passengers, an increase of 2.4 per cent. Austrian Airlines boosted the load factor for its aircraft by 0.7 percentage points to 86.1 per cent, carrying a total of 1.1 million passengers, 1.9 per cent more than in August 2012. 

Lufthansa Cargo expanded its capacity (measured in cargo tonne-kilometres) by 4.4 per cent in August. Sales (also in cargo tonne-kilometres) were up by 1.7 per cent, so that the cargo load factor fell year on year by 1.8 percentage points to 66.5 per cent. All in all Lufthansa Cargo transported 136,000 tonnes of freight and mail. This is 1.3 per cent less than in the same month last year.