The airlines of the Lufthansa Group transported some 7.9 million passengers in January, 12.6 per cent more than in the same period last year.

Total capacity for the month was up 9.9 per cent in available seat-kilometre terms, while total traffic volume, measured in revenue passenger-kilometres, was raised by 10.5 per cent.

Seat load factor improved accordingly, rising 0.4 percentage points to 76 per cent.

Cargo capacity was raised by 1.7 per cent year-on-year, while cargo sales were up 4.9 per cent in revenue tonne-kilometre terms.

Cargo load factor for the month showed a corresponding improvement, rising two percentage points.

Fare and rate levels were clearly down on January 2016 net of currency factors.

Network airlines Lufthansa, Swiss and Austrian Airlines carried 6.2 million passengers in January, 3.2 per cent more than in the previous year.

The Lufthansa Group’s point-to-point airlines – Eurowings (including Germanwings) and Brussels Airlines – carried 1.7 million passengers in January.

Of these, 1.5 million were on short-haul and 0.2 million on long-haul flights.

For the first time, these point-to-point figures include the numbers of Brussels Airlines, which was fully acquired by the Lufthansa Group in January 2017.