In October 2018, the Lufthansa Group airlines welcomed around 13.2 million passengers – an increase of nine percent compared to the previous year’s month. The available seat kilometres were up 8.9% over the previous year, at the same time, sales increased by 9.4%. Consequently the seat load factor increased by 0.4 percentage points to 81.7% as compared to October 2017.
Cargo capacity increased by 5.0% year-on-year, while cargo sales decreased by 1.9% in revenue tonne-kilometre terms. As a result, the cargo load factor showed a corresponding reduction, decreasing by 4.6 percentage points to 65.6%.
The network airlines including Lufthansa German Airlines, SWISS and Austrian Airlines carried around 9.6 million passengers in October – 7.4% more than in the prior-year period. Compared to the previous year, the available seat kilometres increased by 7.0% in October. The sales volume was up by 7.3% over the same period, with an increasing seat load factor by 0.3 percentage points to 81.8%.
In October, the strongest passenger growth of the network airlines was recorded at Vienna hub with a double-digit growth of 11.7%, followed by Zurich with 9.8%. The number of passengers increased by 9.1% in Munich and 3.6% in Frankfurt. The underlying offer also increased strongest in Vienna by 15.6%. In Munich, the increase in available seat kilometres was 12.6%, in Zurich 11.4% and in Frankfurt only 1.2%.
Lufthansa German Airlines transported around 6.4 million passengers in October, a 5.8% increase compared to the same month last year. A 4.5% increase in seat kilometres in October corresponds to a 4.1% increase in sales. Furthermore, the seat load factor was 81.4%, corresponding 0.3 percentage points below last year’s level.
Eurowings (including Brussels Airlines) carried around 3.7 million passengers in October. Among this total, 3.4 million passengers were on short-haul flights and 280,000 flew on long-haul flights. This amounts to an increase of 13.4% in comparison to the previous year. October capacity was 17.9% above its prior-year level, while its sales volume was up 19.0%, resulting in an increase of seat load factor by 0.8 percentage points to 81.4%.
On short-haul services the airlines raised capacity by 13.4% and increased sales volume by 14.1%, resulting in a 0.5 percentage points increased seat load factor of 82.1%, compared to October 2017. The seat load factor for the long-haul services increased by 1.6 percentage points to 79.8% during the same period, following a 28.2% increase in capacity and a 30.7% rise in sales volume, compared to the previous year.