The airlines of the Lufthansa Group transported some 7.9 million passengers in January, 12.6% more than in the same period last year. Total capacity for the month was up 9.9% in available seat-kilometer terms, while total traffic volume, measured in revenue passenger-kilometers, was raised by 10.5%. Seat load factor improved accordingly, rising 0.4 percentage points to 76.0%. Cargo capacity was raised by 1.7% year-on-year, while cargo sales were up 4.9% in revenue tonne-kilometer terms. Cargo load factor for the month showed a corresponding improvement, rising 2.0 percentage points. Fare and rate levels were clearly down on January 2016 net of currency factors.
Hub airlines
Network airlines Lufthansa, Swiss and Austrian Airlines carried 6.2 million passengers in January, 3.2% more than in the previous year. Capacity was increased by 1.6%, while the sales volume was up 2.9%, raising seat load factor by 0.9 percentage points.
Lufthansa German Airlines transported 4.3 million passengers in January, a 2.3% increase on the same month last year. January capacity was reduced by a slight 0.6%, while the sales volume was up 0.9%. Seat load factor was 1.2 percentage points above its prior-year level.
Point-to-point airlines
The Lufthansa Group"™s point-to-point airlines "“ Eurowings (including Germanwings) and Brussels Airlines "“ carried 1.7 million passengers in January. Of these, 1.5 million were on short-haul and 0.2 million on long-haul flights. January capacity was 114.9% above its prior-year level, while January sales volume was up 112.0%. Seat load factor showed a 0.9-percentage-point decline.
On their short-haul services the point-to-point carriers raised capacity by 68.5% and increased their sales volumes by 67.9%, resulting in a 0.2-percentage-point decline in seat load factor. Seat load factor for their long-haul services declined 14.3 percentage points, following a 261.4% increase in capacity and a 251.7% rise in sales volume.
For the first time, these point-to-point figures include the numbers of Brussels Airlines, which was fully acquired by the Lufthansa Group in January 2017.
