The airlines of the Lufthansa Group carried a record 142 million passengers in 2018. With more than 1.2 million flights and a seat load factor of 81.4 per cent, the aircraft load factor was higher than ever before.

The growth drivers for the network airlines were the Zurich hub and the Munich and Vienna hubs, with passenger growth of 9.5 per cent, 9.3 per cent and 8.5 per cent respectively. The number of passengers at the Frankfurt hub grew by 4.7 percent in 2018. Eurowings also contributed to the Lufthansa Group's new passenger record in 2018 with growth of 18 per cent.

In December, the freight capacity was 4.7 per cent higher than in the previous year and the tonne-kilometres sold 0.4 per cent higher. This results in a payload factor of 66.1 per cent, which is 2.8 percentage points lower. In 2018, total freight capacity was 4.3 percent higher than in the previous year. At the same time, sales increased by 0.8 per cent in this period. At 66.4 per cent, the load factor was 2.3 percentage points lower than in the previous year.

In December 2018, the airlines of the Lufthansa Group welcomed around 10 million passengers on board their aircraft. This corresponds to an increase of 6.9 per cent over the same month last year. The number of seat kilometres offered was 11 per cent up on the previous year, while sales increased by 10.6 per cent. This results in a seat load factor of 78.5 per cent, 0.3 percentage points lower than in December 2017.

Network Airlines

The network airlines Lufthansa, SWISS and Austrian Airlines carried a total of some 7.3 million passengers in December, 5.8 per cent more than in the same month last year. The number of seat-kilometres offered in December was 9.2 per cent up on the same month last year. Sales in seat-kilometres rose by 9.1 per cent in the same period. The seat load factor fell by 0.1 percentage points to 78.7 per cent.

In total, the network airlines carried around 104 million passengers last year, 7.4 per cent more than in the same period last year. The seat load factor for network airlines rose by 0.4 percentage points to 81.5 per cent during this period.

Eurowings Group

In point-to-point traffic, the Lufthansa Group carried 2.6 million passengers with the airlines Eurowings (including Germanwings) and Brussels Airlines in December, of which around 2.3 million on short-haul flights and 294,000 on long-haul flights.

This represents an increase of 9.9 per cent over the previous year. The 19.5 per cent increase in the number of flights on offer in December was offset by a 17.5 per cent increase in sales. At 78 per cent, the seat load factor was 1.4 percentage points lower than in the same month last year.

On short-haul routes, the number of seat-kilometres offered was increased by 18 per cent in December, while the number of seat-kilometres sold rose by 13.9 per cent over the same period. At 74.3 per cent, the seat load factor was 2.6 percent-age points lower than in the same month last year. On long-haul routes, the seat load factor rose by 0.3 percentage points to 83.1 percent over the same period. The 21.6 per cent increase in capacity was offset by a 22.1 per cent increase in sales.

In 2018, the Eurowings Group carried a total of around 38.5 million passengers, 18 per cent more than in the previous year. At 81.3 percent, the seat load factor during this period was 1.4 percentage points higher than in the previous year. – TradeArabia News Service