Lufthansa Group with new passenger and seat load factor records in the first half of 2017

The airlines of the Lufthansa Group welcomed on board around 12 million passengers in June 2017. This shows an increase of 18% compared to the previous year’s month. The available seat kilometres were up 12.3% over the previous year; at the same time, sales increased by 15.9%. The seat load factor improved accordingly, rising 2.6 percentage points to 82.8%, compared to June 2016.

The currency adjusted pricing environment in June was positive.

In the first half of the year, around 60 million passengers were transported, 17.2% more than in the first half of 2016. Overall, the Lufthansa Group carried more passengers than ever before in the first half of 2017. The seat load factor has reached a historical peak of 79%. The figure was 2.7 percentage points higher than in the previous year.

Cargo capacity increased 2.9% year-on-year, while cargo sales were up 8.1% in revenue ton-kilometer terms. As a result, the Cargo load factor showed a corresponding improvement, rising 3.3 percentage points in the month. Overall, the cargo capacity in the first half of 2017 was 2.9% higher than in the previous year. At the same time, cargo sales in this period increased by 7.1%, resulting in a load factor of 2.7 higher percentage points.

Network Airlines

The Network Airlines Lufthansa German Airlines, SWISS and Austrian Airlines carried 8.8 million passengers in June, 6.7% more than in the prior-year period and therefore up to 5.1% more than the previous year’s month. Compared to the previous year, the available seat kilometers increased by 2.6% in June, at the same time the number of flights were reduced by 1.9%. The sales volume was up 6.2% over the same period, raising the seat load factor by 2.8 percentage points to 83.2%. In the first half of the year, the Network Airlines carried 45.5 million passengers and therefore 5.9% more than in the same period of the previous year. During this period, the seat load factor for Network Airlines increased by 3 percentage points to 79.3%.

Lufthansa German Airlines transported around six million passengers in June, a 2.7% increase compared to the same month last year. A 0.5% increase in available seat kilometers in June faced a 4% increase in sales. Hence, the seat load factor was up to 84%, therefore 2.9 percentage points above the prior-year level. In the first half of 2017, Lufthansa German Airlines carried 31.2 million passengers, 4.8% more than in the same period of the previous year. At 79.9%, the seat load factor was 3.4 percentage points higher than in the first half of 2016. As a result, Lufthansa German Airlines was able to achieve a historic peak of its flight capacity in both June and the first half of the year.

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 June. Among this total, 3 million passengers were on short-haul flights and 0.2 million flew long-haul. This amounts to an increase of 79% in comparison to the previous year. June capacity was 108.7% above its prior-year level, while the sales volume was up 114.2%, resulting in an increase in seat load factor by 2.1 percentage points, equaling 80.9%. On the short-haul services, the available seat kilometers increased by 73.5%, at the same time, sales increased by 79.4% in the same period. This resulted in a 2.7 percentage points higher seat load factor on these flights than in June 2016. The seat load factor for the long-haul services decreased by 1.4 percentage points to 80.8% during the same period; a 329.5% increase in supply was offset by a 322.3% increase in sales.

The point-to-point airlines carried a total of 14.5 million passengers in the first half of the year, 76.1% more than in the same period of the previous year. At 77.4%, the seat load factor was 0.9 percentage points higher than in the previous year.