Lufthansa Group carries more than 22 million passengers in first quarter 2011

Non-recurring effects depress passenger business / Lufthansa Cargo still on growth path / Germanwings included in traffic figures for first time

The airlines in the Lufthansa Group carried 22.1 million passengers in the first three months of the year. During the term, 6.9 per cent more passengers opted to fly with Lufthansa German Airlines, SWISS, Austrian Airlines, bmi and Germanwings, which is included in the traffic figures for the first time. The Group raised capacity by 10.6 per cent and lifted sales by 6.8 per cent. However, non-recurring effects, such as unrest in the Middle East and Africa as well as the catastrophes in Japan adversely affected the overall performance in the first quarter. Since not all the available capacity was sold the seat load factor fell by 2.6 percentage points to 72.5 per cent. Passenger numbers were up in all traffic regions, with the Americas reporting the strongest growth. In the logistics business segment, the Group significantly increased the transported volume of freight and mail to 528,000 tonnes, which is equivalent to an increase of 18.5 per cent on the year-earlier level. The Group’s cargo load factor was down by 1.5 percentage points to 67.3 per cent. The number of flights was up by 4.5 per cent to a total of 266,433.

A total of 13.8 million passengers chose to fly with the Lufthansa Passenger Airlines in the first quarter 2011, which is 12.5 per cent more than in the same term in the previous year. Lufthansa raised capacity by 13.5 per cent, revenue seat-kilometres climbed by 9.5 per cent. The seat load factor was down year-on-year by 2.7 percentage points to 72.6 per cent. The passenger count grew in all traffic regions and strongest of all in Europe. During the term, Swiss International Air Lines carried around 3.6 million passengers, Austrian Airlines welcomed around 2.1 million passengers on board its flights, while 1.2 million passengers flew with bmi and 1.3 million with Germanwings.

Lufthansa Cargo continued on the growth and returned a highly positive transport performance in the first quarter. The cargo carrier raised the transported volume of freight and mail by 19.9 per cent to 469,000 tonnes. The cargo loads factor fell by 1.9 percentage points to 69.9 per cent.