UPDATE 1-Lufthansa March traffic jumps as demand recovers

FRANKFURT, April 13 (Reuters) - Lufthansa carried a third more passengers in March than a year earlier as recent acquisitions and green shoots of an economic recovery helped fill seats.

Lufthansa last year completed a shopping spree that added carriers including Austrian Airlines and bmi to its stable.

The legacy Lufthansa airline alone reported a 9.8 percent gain in passenger volume in March, the German flagship carrier said on Tuesday.

'The figures improved equally strongly for both long-haul and short-haul routes,' it said, easing concern that a looming pilots' strike had spooked passengers last month.

Lufthansa's pilots had said on March 22 they would go on strike for four days from April 13, walking out for the second time in as many months in a dispute over pay and job security.

But they called off the strike last week to enter arbitration talks with their employer. Still, Lufthansa had said that the strike threat alone had hit bookings.

Rival British Airways saw its March passenger volume drop 11.4 percent, hit by seven days of strikes by its cabin crew members in a row over planned cost cuts.

Franco-Dutch Air France-KLM, unfettered by its peers' labour issues, saw its passenger volume gain 4.7 percent during the month.

Airlines suffered their worst year in decades in 2009 as demand dropped amid the global economic crisis, but the International Air Transport Association said on March 30 that airlines had started to climb out of recession.

(Reporting by Maria Sheahan; Editing by Michael Shields) Keywords: LUFTHANSA/TRAFFIC ([e-mail]; [phone]; Reuters Messaging: [e-mail]) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2010. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.