Lufthansa reaches all-time high of 130m passengers

With 130 million passengers, the airlines of Lufthansa Group reached an all-time high in 2017, setting a new passenger record.In December 2017, the airlines welcomed around 9.3 million passengers. This shows an increase of 19.9 per cent compared to the previous year’s month.

The available seat kilometers were up 14.2 per cent over the previous year, at the same time, sales increased by 15.9 per cent. The seat load factor improved accordingly, rising 1.1 percentage points compared to December 2016 to 78.9 per cent.

In total, the airlines welcomed around 130 million passengers on board their aircraft in 2017. The seat load factor on the 1.1 million flights last year remained on a record course of 80.9 per cent.

The currency adjusted yield indication continuous to develop positively in December.Cargo capacity also increased 6.6 per cent year-on-year, while cargo sales were up 5.8 per cent in revenue ton-kilometer terms. As a result, the Cargo load factor decreased 0.5 percentage points in December.

Overall, the cargo capacity in 2017 was 3.3 per cent higher than in the previous year. At the same time, cargo sales in this period increased by 7.4 per cent, resulting in a load factor of 2.7 higher percentage points than in 2016.

The Network Airlines Lufthansa German Airlines, SWISS and Austrian Airlines carried 7 million passengers in December, 7.4 per cent more than in the prior-year period. Compared to the previous year, the available seat kilometers increased by 4.5 per cent in December.

The sales volume was up 5.8 per cent over the same period, raising seat load factor by 1 percentage points to 78.7 per cent. In 2017, the Network Airlines carried 97.4 million passengers and therefore 6.8 per cent more than in the previous year. During this period, the seat load factor for Network Airlines increased by 2.1 percentage points to 81.1 per cent.

Lufthansa German Airlines transported 4.7 million passengers in December, a 7.3 per cent increase compared to the same month last year. A 4.2 per cent increase in seat kilometers in December corresponds to a 5.1 per cent increase in sales.

Furthermore, the seat load factor was up to 79.2 per cent, therefore 0.7 percentage points above the prior-year’s level. In 2017, Lufthansa German Airlines carried 66.2 million passengers, 6.1 per cent more than in the previous year. At 81.6 per cent, the seat load factor was 2.5 percentage points higher than in 2016.