In 2019, the airlines of the Lufthansa Group carried a total of 145 million passengers on board. This represents an increase of 2.3 percent compared to the previous year. With around 1.2 million flights the seat load factor amounted 82.5 percent. This represents an increase of 1.0 percentage points. Both figures thus exceed the record figures of the previous year.

The network airlines recorded an increase in the number of passengers in 2019, in particular at the hubs in Zurich (+5.7%), Vienna (+5.1%) and Munich (+2.5%). The number of passengers at the Frankfurt hub grew by 0.4 percent in 2019.

In December, the freight capacity was 0.3 percent higher than in the previous year and the tonne-kilometers sold declined by 3.6 percent. This results in a payload factor of 63.9 percent, which is 2.6 percentage points lower. In 2019, total freight capacity was 6.3 percent higher than in the previous year. At the same time, sales decreased by 2.1 percent in this period. At 61.4 percent, the load factor was 5.3 percentage points lower than in the previous year.

In December 2019, the airlines of the Lufthansa Group welcomed around 10 million passengers on board their aircraft. This corresponds to a decrease of 0.3 percent over the same month last year. The number of seat kilometers offered was 0.3 percent up on the previous year, while sales increased by 3.3 percent. This results in a seat load factor of 81.0 percent, 2.4 percentage points higher than in December 2018.

Network Airlines

The network airlines Lufthansa, SWISS and Austrian Airlines carried a total of some 7.5 million passengers in December, 2.5 percent more than in the same month last year. The number of seat-kilometers offered in December was 2.9 percent up on the same month last year. Sales in seat kilometers rose by 6.3 percent in the same period. The seat load factor increased by 2.6 percentage points to 81.3 percent.

The number of passengers in December rose by 4.9% at the Zurich hub, by 4.4% in Vienna and by 2.0% in Munich. In Frankfurt, the number of passengers declined by 1.3% in the same period.

In total, the network airlines carried around 107 million passengers last year, 3.2 percent more than in the same period last year. The seat load factor for network airlines rose by 1.0 percentage points to 82.5 percent during this period.

Eurowings

In point-to-point traffic, the Lufthansa Group carried 2.4 million passengers with the airlines Eurowings (including Germanwings) and Brussels Airlines in December, of which around 2.2 million on short-haul flights and 258,000 on long-haul flights.

This represents a decrease of 7.9 percent over the previous year. The 11.3 percent decrease in the number of flights on offer in December was offset by a 10.1 percent decrease in sales. At 79.1 percent, the seat load factor was 1.0 percentage points higher than in the same month last year.

On short-haul routes, the number of seat-kilometers offered was decreased by 9.6 percent in December, while the number of seat-kilometers sold decreased by 5.7 percent over the same period. At 77.5 percent, the seat load factor was 3.2 percentage points higher than in the same month last year. On long-haul routes, the seat load factor decreased by 1.8 percentage points to 83.1 percent over the same period. The 13.5 percent decrease in capacity was offset by a 15.4 percent decrease in sales.

In 2019, the Eurowings Group carried a total of around 28.1 million passengers, 1.4  percent less than in the previous year. At 82.6 percent, the seat load factor during this period was 1.2 percentage points higher than in the previous year.