With 111 million passengers Lufthansa Group exceeded last year’s total number already in October

The airlines of the Lufthansa Group have so far welcomed around 111 million passengers on board their aircraft in 2017, which is more than in the whole year of 2016. The seat load factor on the almost one million flights this year remains on a record course of 81.4 percent.

In October 2017, the airlines of the Lufthansa Group welcomed around 12.2 million passengers. This shows an increase of 16.7% compared to the previous year’s month. The available seat kilometers were up 11.6% over the previous year, at the same time, sales increased by 12.1%. The seat load factor improved accordingly, rising 0.4 percentage points compared to October 2016 to 81.4%.

The currency adjusted pricing environment developed positively in October the sixth consecutive month.

Cargo capacity increased 1% year-on-year, while cargo sales were up 2.4% in revenue tonne-kilometer terms. As a result, the Cargo load factor showed a corresponding improvement, rising 0.9 percentage points in the month.

Network Airlines

The Network Airlines Lufthansa German Airlines, SWISS and Austrian Airlines carried nine million passengers in October, 4.1% more than in the prior-year period. Compared to the previous year, the available seat kilometers increased by 1.6% in October. The sales volume was up 2.7% over the same period, raising seat load factor by 0.8 percentage points to 81.6%.

Lufthansa German Airlines transported 6.1 million passengers in October, a 4% increase compared to the same month last year. A 0.9% increase in seat kilometers in October corresponds to a 2.3% increase in sales. Furthermore, the seat load factor was up to 81.7%, therefore 1.2 percentage points above the prior-year’s level.

Point-to-Point Airlines

The Lufthansa Group’s Point-to-Point Airlines – Eurowings (including Germanwings) and Brussels Airlines – carried around 3.2 million passengers in October. Among this total, three million passengers were on short-haul flights and 213,000 flew long-haul. This amounts to an increase of 75.6% in comparison to the previous year. October capacity was 105.3% above its prior-year level, while its sales volume was up 98.8%, resulting in a decreased seat load factor by 2.7 percentage points of 80.6%.

 On short-haul services the Point-to-Point Airlines raised capacity 70.4% and increased sales volume by 70.8%, resulting in a 0.2 percentage points increase in seat load factor of 81.7%, compared to October 2016. The seat load factor for the long-haul services decreased 14.6 percentage points to 78.2% during the same period, following a 291.9% increase in capacity and a 230.3% rise in sales volume, compared to the previous year. The number of passengers on long-haul flights of the Point-to-Point Airlines in October was around four times higher than one year before.