Europe’s second-largest airline, Deutsche Lufthansa AG, said passenger traffic rose 3.9 per cent last month after the German carrier increased frequencies and added routes to Asia and the US and within Europe.
Lufthansa’s cargo division handled 0.2 per cent more freight with a 0.9 per cent rise in the load factor to 69.4 per cent.
On the passenger side, the load factor climbed 0.6 percentage points in September from a year earlier to 79.7 percent. The Cologne-based airline carried 5.19 million passengers, a 2.3 per cent gain.
traffic growth accelerated from last year’s 2 percent advance as Lufthansa expanded capacity 3 percent to meet competition from network rivals including Air France-KLM Group and low-cost carriers such as Ryanair Holdings Plc.
Including the Swiss International Air Lines Ltd. unit, traffic surged 25 per cent, boosted by the consolidation of the Swiss-based operation from 1 July. Lufthansa and Swiss together carried 6.28 million passengers in September.
Combined Lufthansa-Swiss traffic rose 28 per cent in Europe and 25 per cent in North and South America. The Asia-Pacific showed a 19 per cent gain and traffic to destinations in the Middle East and Africa jumped 42 per cent.