OREANDA-NEWS.   Number of passengers carried by Lufthansa, Germanwings, Swiss and Austrian Airlines up 0.5 per cent / Lufthansa Cargo boosts sales and load factor
The airlines in the Lufthansa Group carried a total of 21.7 million passengers in the first quarter, 0.5 per cent more than in the same period last year. The number of flights was lower by 1.2 per cent across the Group, while an average of 75.6 per cent of seats on passenger planes were taken. This represents a year-on-year decline in the load factor of 0.5 percentage points. Capacity (measured in seat-kilometres) was 0.4 per cent up on the previous year’s figure, while sales (measured in passenger-kilometres) was 0.3 per cent down. Alongside the strike in March, to which the trade union verdi had called its members at German airports, another reason for the fall was stronger capacity growth on short- and medium-haul connections compared with long-haul routes. This is primarily the result of using larger aircraft as part of the Group’s ongoing fleet modernisation, and is also one of the reasons for the increase in passengers in the first quarter of the current year.

At 15.8 million in total, Lufthansa and Germanwings transported 1.5 per cent more passengers in the first quarter than in the same period last year. The passenger load factor at both airlines came to 74.8 per cent, a decline of 0.7 percentage points. Capacity at Lufthansa and Germanwings corresponded to that of the same period in the previous year, and the fall in sales was limited to 0.9 per cent. Between January and March, 3.7 million passengers flew with Swiss, which was 2.1 per cent fewer than in the same period last year. The passenger load factor came to 79.1 per cent (-0.7 percentage points). Austrian Airlines carried 2.2 million passengers, 2.3 per cent fewer than the year before. The load factor of the aircraft at Austrian Airlines came to 74.2 per cent (+0.2 percentage points).

Lufthansa Cargo transported 399,000 tonnes of freight and mail in the first quarter, a drop of 0.3 per cent. The company expanded its capacity by 1.6 per cent year on year, and increased sales by 2.3 per cent. Lufthansa Cargo improved its load factor accordingly to 72.0 per cent (+0.4 percentage points). The Group transported a total of 458,000 tonnes of freight and mail (-0.8 per cent). Capacity (measured in cargo tonne-kilometres) climbed by 1.1 per cent, while sales rose by 2.6 per cent. The cargo load factor was also up at 71.6 per cent (+1.1 percentage points).