Airlines in the Lufthansa Group further improve utilisation of their aircraft

All the airlines in the Lufthansa Group profited in the first quarter of the year from improved capacity steering and, as expected lifted the utilisation of their aircraft in comparison with the year-earlier level. The Lufthansa Group raised the seat load factor in passenger traffic by 1.9 percentage points year-on-year to 76.1 per cent. The cargo load factor rose by 0.6 percentage points to 70.5 per cent.

Owing to the Group-wide 2.7 per-cent reduction in capacity (in terms of available seat-kilometres), the number of passengers carried by Lufthansa German Airlines, SWISS and Austrian Airlines in the period from January through March fell by 2.3 per cent on the prior-year level to 21.6 million. Sales (revenue seat kilometres) in the same term were down by 0.1 per cent but remained virtually stable. The reduction in capacity led to an improved utilization accordingly.

Lufthansa German Airlines raised its seat load factor in the first quarter by 1.7 percentage points to 75.5 per cent. In the period January through March, the airline reduced capacity by three per cent. The decline in sales was limited, simultaneously, to 0.8 per cent. The Lufthansa passenger count fell by 1.9 per cent to 15.5 million. SWISS improved the passenger load factor in the first quarter by 2.4 percentage points to 79.8 per cent. The Swiss carrier raised capacity in the first three months by 1.9 per cent, sales rose over-proportionately by 4.9 per cent. The number of passengers carried by SWISS in the first quarter totalled 3.8 million. The passenger count fell by 3.4 per cent owing largely to fewer flights. Austrian Airlines scaled back capacity by 9.4 per cent. The fall in sales was contained at a disproportionate 5.2 per cent. Thanks to capacity steering, Austrian Airlines improved the seat load factor in the first quarter by 3.3 percentage points to 74.0 per cent. Passenger numbers at Austrian Airlines in the first three months were down on the year-earlier level by 2.7 per cent to 2.3 million.

Successful capacity steering also improved the load factor at Lufthansa Cargo by 1.7 percentage points to 71.4 per cent. The cargo carrier trimmed capacity in the first quarter by 7.4 per cent, sales fell at a lesser 5.9 per cent. All in all, Lufthansa Cargo transported 399,000 tonnes of freight and mail in the first three months, a decline of 7.2 per cent.