Lufthansa finds some lift on traffic demand in March

The German flag carrier has seen an upturn for the previous month as traffic demand grew, driven by its Eurowings and Brussels Airlines brands.

A Lufthansa airliner takes off at the Simon Bolivar Airport in Caracas, Venezuela. Carlos Garcia Rawlins / Reuters

Lufthansa said on Tuesday it had seen a slight improvement in pricing in March as it reported traffic demand up 11 percent driven by growth at its Eurowings and Brussels Airlines brands.

Lufthansa said traffic measured in revenue seat kilometres rose 11 per cent while capacity rose more slowly at 9.9 per cent. That meant the load factor – a measure of how full planes are – rose 0.8 percentage points to 77.2 per cent.

“Pricing was slightly positive in March on a currency-neutral basis,” it said.

Rival Air France-KLM also reported solid March traffic figures on Monday, saying the improved pricing trend it had seen since the end of 2016 had continued.

Lufthansa shares were up around 2 per cent ahead of the data, boosted by an upgrade from Exane BNP Paribas, and extended gains to trade up almost 4 per cent at 11.12 GMT.

* Reuters

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