Lufthansa December Traffic, Capacity, Load Factor Rise

(RTTNews) - German aviation group Lufthansa Group (DLAKF, DLAKY) reported Friday that the group flew 2.5 percent more passengers in the month of December 2013 compared to last year. Traffic, or sales for the group increased 1.7 percent, while capacity rose 0.6 percent and passenger load factor improved 0.8 percentage points.

Lufthansa said that in December, it again reduced the number of flights during the month by 1.5 percent. The company added that as expected, pricing was still down on last year, partly reflecting the adverse exchange rate effects.

Lufthansa Group reported a 2.5 percent increase in passengers flown in the month of December from the year-ago period to 7.30 million. Passenger numbers were higher in America (North and South), Europe and Asia Pacific regions, while it declined in the Middle East/Africa region.

The airline's traffic for the month of December, measured in revenue seat-kilometers, increased 1.7 percent to 14.79 billion. Capacity, measured in available seat-kilometers, edged up 0.6 percent year-over-year to 18.96 billion. The passenger load factor for the month rose 0.8 percentage points from the prior year to 78 percent.

During December, Lufthansa Passenger Airlines, including Germanwings, reported 3.4 percent growth in passengers flown. Swiss Air reported a 1.6 percent increase, while Austrian Airlines recorded a 1.3 percent decline in total number of passengers flown.

In the German carrier Lufthansa Passenger Airlines, capacity edged down 0.2 percent while traffic increased 0.8 percent. Passenger load factor rose 0.7 percentage points from last year.

In the logistics business segment, Lufthansa Group's transported volume of freight and mail declined 2.6 percent to 155,000 tonnes. The group's cargo load factor declined 2.3 percentage points to 70.7 percent.

Lufthansa Cargo's transported volume of freight and mail declined 2.3 percent from last year to 133,000 tonnes. Cargo load factor declined 1.8 percentage points to 71.6 percent. The airline's cargo capacity rose by 5.0 percent, leading to a 2.5 percent increase in sales. Lufthansa noted that the additional freight space on passenger aircraft resulted in greater capacity, which could not be sold in full.

In a separate press release, Lufthansa said that traffic in its passenger business in 2013 increased 2.3 percent to more than 209 billion revenue passenger-kilometres, reflecting the use of larger aircraft and better overall load factors for flights. Load factor for the year rose one percentage point to 79.8 percent.

Overall capacity for the year, measured in seat-kilometres, increased 1 percent from 2012, while the the number of flights was reduced by 3.7 percent.

Lufthansa Group said that the press conference to present its annual results for 2013 will take place on March 13. This will be followed by the company's annual general meeting on April 29 in Hamburg and the publication of the results for the first quarter on May 6.

In Friday's session on Frankfurt's Xetra exchange, Lufthansa's shares are trading at 17.25 euros, up 1.31 euros or 8.19 percent on a volume of 9.30 million shares.