In November 2019, the Lufthansa Group airlines welcomed around 10.4 million passengers on board. This shows a decrease of 2.3 percent compared to the previous year’s month which was due to declining passenger numbers on flights within Europe (incl. domestic flights). The available seat kilometers were 1.4 percent lower than in the previous year. At the same time, sales increased by 1.3 percent. In addition as compared to November 2018, the seat load factor increased by 2.1 percentage points to 80.2 percent.
Cargo capacity increased by 2.3 percent year-on-year, while cargo sales decreased by 1.8 percent in revenue ton-kilometer terms. As a result, the Cargo load factor showed a corresponding reduction, decreasing by 2.7 percentage points to 65.4 percent.
Network Airlines with around 8 million passengers
The Network Airlines including Lufthansa German Airlines, SWISS and Austrian Airlines carried around 8 million passengers in November – 0.8 percent less than in the prior-year period. While the number of passengers on flights operated by network airlines within Europe (incl. domestic flights) declined, the number of passengers on flights to and from Asia remained the same and increased from and to America, the Middle East and Africa.
Compared to the previous year, the available seat kilometers increased by 0.1 percent in November. The sales volume was up by 2.4 percent over the same period, with an increasing seat load factor by 1.9 percentage points to 80.5 percent.
Number of passengers at Frankfurt hub decreased by 5.9 percent
In November, the strongest passenger growth of the network airlines was recorded at the Lufthansa hub in Zurich with 6.0 percent. The number of passengers increased by 3.1 percent in Vienna and decreased by 2.3 percent in Munich and by 5.9 percent in Frankfurt. The offer in seat kilometers also changed to varying degrees. In Munich the offer increased by 3.8 percent, in Vienna by 3.6 percent and in Zurich by 0.9 percent. In Frankfurt the offer decreased by 3.1 percent.
Lufthansa German Airlines transported around 5.3 million passengers in November, a 3.4 percent decrease compared to the same month last year. A 0.6 percent decrease in seat kilometers corresponds to a 1.1 percent increase in sales. The seat load factor rose by 1.4 percentage points year-on-year to 80.2 percent.
Eurowings with around 2.5 million passengers
Eurowings (including Brussels Airlines) carried around 2.5 million passengers in November. Among this total, around 2.3 million passengers were on short-haul flights and 250,000 flew on long-haul flights. This corresponds to a decrease of 7.7 percent on short-haul routes and an increase of 2.2 percent on long-haul routes compared with the previous year. A 8.1 percent decline in supply in November was offset by a 4.3 percent decline in sales, resulting in a seat load factor of 78.7 percent, which is 3.1 percentage points higher.
In November, the number of seat-kilometers offered on short-haul routes decreased by 11.0 percent, the number of seat-kilometers sold declined by 4.6 percent over the same period. As a result, the seat load factor on these flights was with 78.1 percent 5.3 percentage points higher than in November 2018. On long-haul flights, the seat load factor decreased by 0.7 percentage points to 79.6 percent over the same period. The 3.2 percent decrease in capacity was offset by a 4.0 percent decrease in sales.
