COLOGNE (dpa-AFX) - German aviation group Deutsche Lufthansa AG (DLAKY, DLAKF) announced Tuesday that the group flew 4.0 percent more passengers in the month of May compared to last year. Traffic or sales, for the group grew 5.2 percent, capacity increased 4.1 percent, and passenger load factor edged up 0.9 percentage point.
The airline added that the pricing environment in the passenger business was clearly negative after adjusting for currency effects, compared to last year.
Lufthansa Group reported a 4.0 percent growth in passengers flown in May to 10.03 million from the year-ago month.
During the month, Lufthansa passenger airlines, including Lufthansa Regional and Germanwings, reported a 5.0 percent increase in passengers flown, and at Swiss Air also it grew 5.0 percent, while it declined 4.7 percent at Austrian Airlines as it continued to suffer from low demand from Russia and Eastern Europe.
However, the number of flights the group operated during the month declined 0.8 percent to 89,575 from last year.
The group's total traffic or sales in terms of revenue seat-kilometers was 20.17 billion in May, up 5.2 percent from May 2014. Lufthansa's total capacity, which is measured as available seat-kilometers, grew 4.1 percent for the month to 25.30 billion.
The group's passenger load factor was also up 0.9 percentage points year-over-year at 79.7 percent, boosted by the European and Asia/Pacific regions.
In the German carrier Lufthansa Passenger Airlines, capacity increased 3.7 percent, and traffic grew 5.8 percent. Passenger load factor also improved 1.6 percent from last year.
In the logistics business segment, the Lufthansa Group's transported volume of cargo and mail declined 2.4 percent to 157,000 tonnes. The group's cargo load factor was also down 4.6 percentage points to 64.5 percent.
Lufthansa Airlines cargo's transported volume of cargo and mail also decreased 1.4 percent to 138,000 tonnes from last year. The cargo load factor was also down 4.1 percentage points to 64.4 percent.
In Frankfurt's XETRA exchange, the company's shares are trading in Wednesday's regular trading session at 12.37 euros, up 0.05 euros or 0.37% on a volume of 2.27 million shares.
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX