Lufthansa Airlines Reports Increase in Passenger Numbers

A good sign for Europe's skies: The airlines in the Lufthansa Group are reporting that they carried a total of 4.8 percent more passengers in the first quarter 2012 compared to the same time period last year. All in all, 21.9 million passengers opted to fly with Lufthansa, Germanwings, SWISS or Austrian Airlines. Besides lifting passenger figures in the first three months, all carriers in the Passenger Airline Group raised the average seat load factor of their aircraft. The seat load factor rose group-wide by 1.3 percentage points to 74.2 percent. Capacity was increased by 2.6 percent sales were up by 4.4 percent.
 
Lufthansa Passenger Airlines carried a total of 15.8 million passengers in the three-month term in 2012, an increase of 4.1 percent on the year-earlier level. Capacity was up by 1.6 percent, while sales increased by 3.5 percent. The seat load factor rose accordingly on the prior-year level by 1.3 percentage points to 73.8 percent. SWISS transported around 3.8 million passengers in the first quarter, Austrian Airlines carried close to 2.4 million passengers.
 
Volumes at Lufthansa Cargo fell by 9.3 percent in the first three months of the present year compared with a strong first quarter in 2011. During this term, the cargo carrier in the Lufthansa Group carried a total of 426,000 tonnes of freight and mail. Capacity was reduced by 8.2 percent against the level in the previous year. The load factor slightly fell by 0.4 percentage points to 69.5 percent.