OREANDA-NEWS.  Group’s airlines carry 8.6 million passengers, down 0.6 per cent on last year / Sales in revenue seat-kilometres increase slightly by 0.4 per cent / Passenger load factor rises 1.3 percentage points to 79.5 per cent.
The airlines in the Lufthansa Group carried a total of 8.6 million passengers in April, 0.6 per cent fewer than in the same period last year. Group-wide, the number of flights was 6.1 per cent lower than last year, amongst other things due to the deployment of larger aircraft in the context of the Group’s ongoing fleet modernization. In April an average of 79.5 per cent of seats on passenger planes were taken. This represents a year-on-year improvement in the load factor of 1.3 percentage points. Capacity (measured in available seat-kilometres) was 1.2 per cent down on last year’s figure, while sales (measured in revenue seat-kilometres) rose only slightly on last year, by 0.4 per cent. The main reason for the drop in the Group’s traffic performance in April was the strike by the Vereinigung Cockpit pilots’ union from 2 to 4 April. Around 3,800 Lufthansa flights were unable to operate during this period.

As a result, the number of passengers carried by Lufthansa and Germanwings in April fell by 2.7 per cent year on year to a total of 6.1 million passengers. The average load factor for the two airlines was 1.1 percentage points higher, reaching 78.1 per cent. The available capacity (seat-kilometres available for sale) of Lufthansa and Germanwings decreased in April by 3.5 per cent, sales went down by 2.1 per cent. The decline in capacity and sale resulted mainly from the strike activities. In April, 1.5 million passengers flew with Swiss, which was 3.0 per cent more than in the same period last year. The passenger load factor came to 84.4 per cent (-0.1 percentage points). Austrian Airlines carried 1.0 million passengers, 8.3 per cent more than the year before. The load factor at Austrian Airlines climbed by 4.3 percentage points to 80.7 per cent.

Lufthansa Cargo’s traffic performance was also adversely affected by the strike. The company transported 122,000 tonnes of freight and mail in April, a drop of 11.3 per cent. Its capacity fell by 9.1 per cent compared with last year, while sales were down 10.6 per cent. Lufthansa Cargo’s load factor decreased accordingly to 68.3 per cent (-1.2 percentage points). The Group transported a total of 143,000 tonnes of freight and mail (-9.7 per cent). Capacity (measured in cargo tonne-kilometres) went down by 7.8 per cent, while sales declined by 8.1 per cent. The cargo load factor was up at 68.3 per cent (-0.2 percentage points).