Lufthansa passenger numbers increase

Frankfurt - Lufthansa, Germany's number one airline, said on Tuesday that its passenger numbers increased slightly in May as it cut the number of flights due to the timing of the public holidays.

Lufthansa said in a statement it carried 9.377 million passengers in May, 0.8% more than during the same month last year, while the number of flights fell by 4.0% to 90 934.

Capacity rose by 3.4% and the so-called critical seat-load factor, which measures the number of seats filled on flights, edged up by 0.4 percentage points to 78.2 percent, the statement said.

Lufthansa, which also owns Austrian Airlines and SWISS, said the number of passengers on Lufthansa-only flights increased by 0.9 percent to 6.906 million last month.

SWISS passengers rose by 3.6% to 1.472 million, while the number of passengers flying with Austrian Airlines was down 3.6% at 999 000.

The volume of freight transported by its Lufthansa Cargo unit slid by 2.2% to 144 000 tonnes last month, the statement added.