OREANDA-NEWS. The airlines of Lufthansa Group improved the load factors for their aircraft once again in the new year. Across the Group, an average of 75.6 per cent of seats on passenger planes were occupied in January. This represents an increase of 0.8 percentage points on the previous year. The improved load factor is the result of a 2.6 per cent increase in sales (measured in passenger-kilometres). Capacity (measured in seat-kilometres) was only 1.6 per cent higher than in January of last year. The number of passengers carried by Lufthansa, Germanwings, Swiss and Austrian Airlines went up by two per cent to 6.9 million. And in the cargo business, the Group transported one per cent more freight and mail than in the previous year, at 136,000 tonnes. Available tonne-kilometres for the Group as a whole went up by 6.0 per cent and sales by 3.7 per cent, while the cargo load factor accordingly came to 66.0 per cent (-1.4 percentage points).

In regional terms, the Group reported an increase in the load factor across all traffic regions in January. The Asia/Pacific traffic region recorded the biggest improvement in the load factor, it was up two percentage points on the previous year. All of the Group's airlines were able to increase their passenger load factor. Lufthansa and Germanwings pushed up the load factor for their aircraft by 0.8 percentage points overall to 75.3 per cent against the previous year. Both airlines expanded their capacity by 1.1 per cent, while sales were up 2.2 per cent. 2.8 per cent more passengers also chose to fly with Lufthansa or Germanwings than in the same month of the previous year, taking the total to five million. Swiss was also able to improve its load factor yet again, which picked up here by 0.6 percentage points to 78.0 per cent. The company carried 1.2 million passengers (+0.5 per cent). Austrian Airlines boosted its passenger load factor to 72.4 per cent (+0.6 percentage points), carrying 717,000 passengers (-0.9 per cent).

Lufthansa Cargo transported 116,000 tonnes of freight and mail in January, which marks an increase of 1.2 per cent. The company expanded its capacity by 7.8 per cent compared with the previous year, while sales were up 4.2 per cent. The load factor at Lufthansa Cargo came to 66.5 per cent (-2.3 percentage points).