Passenger numbers on last year`s level - Utilisation down
The Lufthansa Group`s traffic figures in the first nine months of the year were essentially influenced by the effects of the terrorist attacks in the USA, global economic weakness and the pilots` strike at the airline. Passenger numbers during the term were slightly higher than last year`s level in the same period.
From January to September, 36 million passengers flew with the airlines in the Group, a year-on-year increase of 1.1 per cent. Of the total, 31.2 million passengers (plus 0.2 per cent) were carried by Lufthansa German Airlines and 4.6 million (plus 7.1 per cent ) by the Lufthansa CityLine regional carrier. Not all the 5.4 per cent increase in capacity was sold in a difficult marketplace. Utilisation of the passenger aircraft sank accordingly by 2.3 per cent to 72.9 per cent.
The weakening world economy and the impact of the terrorist attacks depressed performance at Lufthansa Cargo. Cargo volumes fell by 7.2 per cent to 1,230,817 tonnes. The cargo load factor of 61.4 per cent at the three-quarter stage clearly remained (- 6.1 percentage points) below the prior-year level.

Overall utilisation in both the passenger and freight business at the Lufthansa Group in the first nine months was down year-on-year by 4.2 percentage points to 67.7 per cent.

Third-quarter figures at the Lufthansa Group will be published on November 14 2001. They will be available simultaneously in English and German on our website www.lufthansa-financials.com
——-