In April 2018, the airlines of the Lufthansa Group welcomed around 12.2 million passengers. This shows an increase of 9.1% compared to the previous year’s month, although last year’s German Easter holidays fell in April. The available seat kilometers were up 7.4% over the previous year, at the same time, sales increased by six percent. The seat load factor decreased by 1.1 percentage points compared to April 2017 to 81.2%. In the first four months of 2018, the Group continues to record levels of capacity, capacity utilization and passenger numbers.
The currency-adjusted sales environment developed positively in April compared to the previous year.
Cargo capacity increased 6.9% year-on-year, while cargo sales were up 3.4% in revenue tonne-kilometer terms. As a result, the Cargo load factor showed a corresponding reduction, decreasing 2.3 percentage points in the month to 67.2%.
Network Airlines
The Network Airlines Lufthansa German Airlines, SWISS and Austrian Airlines carried 8.9 million passengers in April, 6.1% more than in the prior-year period. Compared to the previous year, the available seat kilometers increased by 5.4% in April. The sales volume was up 3.8% over the same period, decreasing seat load factor by 1.2 percentage points to 81.2%.
Lufthansa German Airlines transported 5.9 million passengers in April, a 4.7% increase compared to the same month last year. A 3.8% increase in seat kilometers in April corresponds to a 1.7% increase in sales. Furthermore, the seat load factor was 80.7%, therefore 1.7 percentage points below the prior-year’s level.
Eurowings Group
The Eurowings Group with the airlines Eurowings (including Germanwings) and Brussels Airlines carried around 3.3 million passengers in April. Among this total, three million passengers were on short-haul flights and 250,000 flew long-haul. This amounts to an increase of 18.3% in comparison to the previous year. April capacity was 17.9% above its prior-year level, while its sales volume was up 17.0%, resulting in a decreased seat load factor by 0.7 percentage points of 81.2%.
On short-haul services the Airlines raised capacity 20.9% and increased sales volume by 20.3%, resulting in a 0.4 percentage points decrease in seat load factor of 80.3%, compared to April 2017. The seat load factor for the long-haul services decreased by 0.9 percentage points to 83.2% during the same period, following a 12.0% increase in capacity and a 10.8% rise in sales volume, compared to the previous year.
