GERMANY. Lufthansa and CityLine’s passenger traffic slipped -0.4% to 3.906 million in August 2003, compared with the same month last year, the German airline reported yesterday. This brought the passenger count back up to the level achieved in August 2002.
Figure (left): Lufthansa’s change in load factor (LF) in August 2003 compared with previous year
The moderate increase in capacity coupled with a slight fall in sales caused the passenger load factor to slip 1.3 percentage points to 75.4%.
Passenger numbers on European routes fell -2% year-on-year in August to 2.937 million. According to Lufthansa the measures introduced to cut capacity and promote sales in Europe succeeded in raising the passenger load factor, up 2.4 percentage points year-on-year to 67.3%.
However, traffic to North and South America rose +9.1% to 560,000 and passengers on routes to the Middle East and Africa rose +10.2% to 150,000.
Traffic to the Asia Pacific region fell -4.7%, and with capacity in this region down significantly, the seat occupancy rate rose by 0.9 percentage points to 82.7%.
