Lufthansa passenger numbers down in 2009

Under the impact of the poor economic situation, Lufthansa flew fewer passengers in 2009 than in the previous year. In the period January through December, around 55.6 million passengers opted for flights with Lufthansa, a decline of 2.6 per cent on the year-earlier level. During the year, capacity was scaled back by 1.3 per cent. Revenue seat-kilometres fell by 2.4 per cent. The seat load factor was down year-on-year by 0.9 percentage points to 77.7 per cent. Passenger numbers dropped in all traffic regions with the exception of the Middle East/Africa.

All in all during the year, the airlines in the Lufthansa Group welcomed a total of more than 76 million passengers on board their flights. This was equivalent to a plus attributable to changes in consolidation of about 8.5 per cent compared with the twelve months in the previous year. Of the total passenger count, 13.8 million flew with SWISS, 3.3 million with Austrian Airlines and 3.8 million with British Midland (bmi). The Group’s figures reflect passengers flown by Austrian Airlines only since September 2009 and those carried by bmi only since July 2009. The number of flights operated by the airlines in the Group totalled 893,235, an increase of 7.5 per cent.

Lufthansa Cargo transported around 1.5 million tonnes of freight and mail, a decrease of 10.5 per cent on the prior-year level. The cargo load factor fell by 2.3 percentage points to 63.6 per cent.

The financial results of the Lufthansa Group in the 2009 business year will be published on 11 March 2010 and can be downloaded from www.lufthansa.com/investor-relations.de from 8 a.m..