The Austrian Airlines Group achieved an average load factor on its flights of 68.7 percent in January 2010. This was 3.8 percentage points above the figure for the same month the previous year. Austrian Airlines carried around 668,000 passengers in January 2010, 2.8 percent more than in January 2009. Passenger volume was therefore positive, even though this trend is also a reflection of the fact that the comparison month of January 2009 was particularly weak due to the economic crisis. The Members of the Austrian Airlines Executive Board, Andreas Bierwirth and Peter Malanik, said the following: “We must not allow ourselves to be deceived by the positive trend in passenger volume; the revenue situation remains as difficult as ever.”

Short- and Medium-Haul
Around 567,300 passengers flew short- and medium-haul routes with Austrian Airlines in January. This corresponds to growth of 7.1 percent compared to January of last year. With a rise of 3.8 percentage points, the load factor has increased to 61.0 percent. It proved possible to increase the load factor in all traffic segments: in Eastern Europe, the load factor improved by 3.7 percentage points to 60.2 percent, while in Western Europe it rose by 3.7 percentage points to 61.9 percent. We increased our capacity measured in Available Seat Kilometers (ASK) by 1.1 percent, with Revenue Passenger Kilometers (RPK) rising by 7.8 percent.

Long-Haul
The number of passengers taking long-haul flights fell by 8.2 percent to 69,000 in January. As we reduced our ASK by 14.6 percent, we succeeded in increasing the load factor by 8.6 percentage points to 81.3 percent.

Charter
The number of passengers carried on charter flights in January, at 31,700, was 29.4 percent down on the same month the previous year. We sharply reduced capacity in January compared to last year in the charter segment, cutting the figure by 21.2 percent where measured by ASK.