Deutsche Lufthansa AG : Lufthansa Group in 2011 with record passenger figures

11.01.12

Airlines carry over 106 million passengers in total / Passenger Airline Group still plans low-level growth of 3 per cent in 2012 due to weak economic environment

The airlines that make up the Lufthansa Group carried a record number of passengers in 2011. A total of 106.3 million passengers chose to fly with Lufthansa, SWISS, Austrian Airlines, bmi and Germanwings. This is equivalent to growth of 7.5 per cent compared with the previous year. The Group increased its capacity by 9.8 per cent overall in 2011, while its revenue seat kilometres rose by 7.0 per cent. The average passenger load factor for the aircraft correspondingly fell by two percentage points to 77.2 per cent.

The trend of decreasing sales that emerged in autumn continued in the remaining months of the year - Group-wide, it proved not possible to match the level of sales growth recorded at the beginning of the year. In the light of this development and ongoing economic uncertainty, the Passenger Airline Group plans to achieve low-level growth of 3 per cent in its available seat kilometres in the full year 2012. This will be realised by using larger aircraft and introducing the new Europa cabin on Lufthansa Passenger Airlines' European routes. A total of 65.5 million passengers flew with Lufthansa-brand planes in 2011 - 11.1 per cent more than in the previous year. Lufthansa expanded its capacity by 11.8 per cent in the full year, while sales were up 8.8 per cent. The load factor was 2.2 percentage points down year on year, at 77.2 per cent. In 2011, SWISS carried approximately 16.4 million passengers, at Austrian Airlines passenger numbers came to 11.3 million, around 5.7 million passengers chose to fly with bmi, and Germanwings had approximately 7.5 million passengers.

Lufthansa Cargo recorded growth of 5 per cent in its tonne-kilometres transported in 2011 and carried a total of 1.9 million tonnes of freight and mail. Capacity grew by 8.6 per cent in the full year, while sales were up 6.5 per cent. This prompted the load factor to drop by 1.4 percentage points to 69.5 per cent.

The Lufthansa Group's financial results for the full year 2011 will be published on 15 March 2012 and will be available for download at from 8.00 a.m.

Passengers in thousands	65,458	58,916	11.1
Available seat kilometres in millions	182,609	163,270	11.8
Revenue seat kilometres in millions	141,055	129,668	8.8
Passenger load factor in per cent	77.2	79.4	-2.2 pp
Freight/mail in 1,000 t	1,885	1,795	5.0
Cargo load factor in per cent	69.5	70.9	-1.4 pp
SWISS
Passengers in thousands	16,361	15,153	8.0
Passenger load factor in per cent	81.1	82.2	-1.1 pp
Austrian Airlines
Passengers in thousands	11,261	10,895	3.4
Passenger load factor in per cent	73.8	76.8	-3.0 pp
bmi
Passengers in thousands	5,733	6,194	-7.4
Passenger load factor in per cent	67.1	71.7	-4.6 pp
Germanwings
Passengers in thousands	7,522	7,730	-2.7
Passenger load factor in per cent	78.2	77.2	1.0 pp
Passengers in thousands	106,335	98,887	7.5
Number of flights	1,131,919	1,091,616	3.7

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2Lufthansa Passenger Airlines, Lufthansa Cargo, SWISS (incl. Edelweiss)