Lufthansa: Strong increase in load factor in February 2013

Due to the capacity reduction in the winter flight plan, the Passenger Airline Group reduced its capacities in February by 3.9 per cent. Sales contracted by only 1.1 per cent compared with the previous year. The passenger load factor improved again significantly. (73.7%, +2.0 pts.). The pricing environment was stable.

Lufthansa Passenger Airlines (incl. Germanwings) and SWISS reduced their capacities by 3.6 and 1.3 per cent respectively. Austrian Airlines took out capacity even more significantly (-11.7%).

In European traffic, the Passenger Airline Group was able to increase sales slightly (+0.8%), although capacity was reduced by 4.3 per cent compared with the previous year. As a consequence the load factor improved significantly by 3.4 percentage points (67.5%). Due to Chinese New Year, capacity to Asia/Pacific was cut even more strongly than in the previous months (-9.4%). Restrictive capacity management was continued in Middle East/Africa (-8.7%). 3.2 per cent higher capacities to America met a high increase in demand (+4.6%). Once again, load factors rose in all long-haul regions.

In the freight business, Lufthansa Cargo reduced its capacities, (-12.6%), partly also because of Chinese New Year. Sales declined less; therefore the cargo load factor rose (72.1%, +1.1 pts.).