The Lufthansa Group made history in 2017 when it airlifted 130 million passengers, a record, which the airline described as all time high.
The German carrier said in December 2017, the airlines of the Lufthansa Group welcomed around 9.3 million passengers. This shows an increase of 19.9 percent compared to the previous year’s month.
The Group noted that the available seat kilometers were up 14.2 percent over the previous year, at the same time, sales increased by 15.9 percent and the seat load factor improved accordingly, rising 1.1 percentage points compared to December 2016 to 78.9 percent.
In total, the airlines of the Lufthansa Group welcomed around 130 million passengers on board their aircraft in 2017 and set with this number a new passenger record. The seat load factor on the 1.1 million flights last year remained on a record course of 80.9 percent.
The currency adjusted yield indication continuous to develop positively in December.
The group said cargo capacity increased 6.6 percent year-on-year, while cargo sales were up 5.8 percent 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 percent higher than in the previous year. At the same time, cargo sales in this period increased by 7.4 percent, resulting in a load factor of 2.7 higher percentage points than in 2016.
The Group network, which include Lufthansa German Airlines, SWISS and Austrian Airlines carried 7 million passengers in December, 7.4 percent more than in the prior-year period. Compared to the previous year, the available seat kilometers increased by 4.5 percent in December. The sales volume was up 5.8 percent over the same period, raising seat load factor by 1 percentage points to 78.7 percent.
In 2017, the Network Airlines carried 97.4 million passengers and therefore 6.8% 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%.
Lufthansa German Airlines transported 4.7 million passengers in December, a 7.3% increase compared to the same month last year. A 4.2% increase in seat kilometers in
December corresponds to a 5.1% increase in sales. Furthermore, the seat load factor was up to 79.2%, therefore 0.7 percentage points above the prior-year’s level. In 2017, Lufthansa German Airlines carried 66.2 million passengers, 6.1% more than in the previous year. At 81.6%, the seat load factor was 2.5 percentage points higher than in 2016.
Point-to-Point Airlines
The Lufthansa Group’s Point-to-Point Airlines – Eurowings (including Germanwings) and Brussels Airlines – carried around 2.4 million passengers in December. Among this total, 2.1 million passengers were on short-haul flights and 251,000 flew long-haul. This amounts to an increase of 80.3% in comparison to the previous year. December capacity was 107.2% above its prior-year level, while its sales volume was up 113%, resulting in an increased seat load factor by 2.2 percentage points of 79.4%.
On short-haul services the Point-to-Point Airlines raised capacity 77.7% and increased sales volume by 90.1%, resulting in a 5.0 percentage points increase in seat load factor of 77.0%, compared to December 2016. The seat load factor for the long-haul services decreased 5.7 percentage points to 82.7% during the same period, following a 170.1% increase in capacity and a 152.8% rise in sales volume, compared to the previous year.
The Point-to-Point Airlines carried a total of 32.6 million passengers in 2017, 77.0% more than in the previous year. At 79.9%, the seat load factor was 0.3 percentage points higher than in 2016.
