In 2018, the airlines of the Lufthansa Group carried a total of 142 million passengers, setting a new passenger record. With more than 1.2 million flights and a seat load factor of 81.4 percent, the aircraft load factor was higher than ever before.
The growth drivers for the network airlines were the Zurich hub and the Munich and Vienna hubs, with passenger growth of 9.5 percent, 9.3 percent and 8.5 percent respectively. The number of passengers at the Frankfurt hub grew by 4.7 percent in 2018. Eurowings also contributed to the Lufthansa Group’s new passenger record in 2018 with a growth of 18 percent.
In December, the freight capacity was 4.7 percent higher than in the previous year and the tonne-kilometers sold 0.4 percent higher. This results in a payload factor of 66.1 percent, which is 2.8 percentage points lower. In 2018, total freight capacity was 4.3 percent higher than in the previous year. At the same time, sales increased by 0.8 percent in this period. At 66.4 percent, the load factor was 2.3 percentage points lower than in the previous year.
In December 2018, the airlines of the Lufthansa Group welcomed around 10 million passengers on board their aircraft. This corresponds to an increase of 6.9 percent over the same month last year. The number of seat kilometers offered was 11 percent up on the previous year, while sales increased by 10.6 percent. This results in a seat load factor of 78.5 percent, 0.3 percentage points lower than in December 2017.
Network Airlines
The network airlines Lufthansa, SWISS and Austrian Airlines carried a total of some 7.3 million passengers in December, 5.8 percent more than in the same month last year. The number of seat-kilometers offered in December was 9.2 percent up on the same month last year. Sales in seat-kilometers rose by 9.1 percent in the same period. The seat load factor fell by 0.1 percentage points to 78.7 percent.
In total, the network airlines carried around 104 million passengers last year, 7.4 percent more than in the same period last year. The seat load factor for network airlines rose by 0.4 percentage points to 81.5 percent during this period.
Eurowings Group
In point-to-point traffic, the Lufthansa Group carried 2.6 million passengers with the airlines Eurowings (including Germanwings) and Brussels Airlines in December, of which around 2.3 million on short-haul flights and 294,000 on long-haul flights.
This represents an increase of 9.9 percent over the previous year. The 19.5 percent increase in the number of flights on offer in December was offset by a 17.5 percent increase in sales. At 78 percent, the seat load factor was 1.4 percentage points lower than in the same month last year.
On short-haul routes, the number of seat-kilometers offered was increased by 18 percent in December, while the number of seat-kilometers sold rose by 13.9 percent over the same period. At 74.3 percent, the seat load factor was 2.6 percentage points lower than in the same month last year. On long-haul routes, the seat load factor rose by 0.3 percentage points to 83.1 percent over the same period. The 21.6 percent increase in capacity was offset by a 22.1 percent increase in sales.
In 2018, the Eurowings Group carried a total of around 38.5 million passengers, 18 percent more than in the previous year. At 81.3 percent, the seat load factor during this period was 1.4 percentage points higher than in the previous year.
