At the beginning of each month, Europe's airlines tell financial analysts just how well (or not) they have been doing in the previous month.
Figures for individual airlines tell a story about that particular carrier but here at Business Travel iQ we like to do things differently in order to find out what is happening on the bigger stage.
Our chart this week pulls together February traffic figures for Europe's major airlines and airline groups and shows how they have changed year on year. While the figures only act as a snapshot since they only refer to a single month which may have been affected by events that differ between countries they do reveal some interesting trends.
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Perhaps the most standout point is the inexorable rise of Ryanair. It grew its passenger traffic by 29% year on year and is the continent's most "popular" airline. Fellow low-cost carrier easyJet grew more modestly, by a far more modest 6.1%. However, this was considerably better than most of Europe's legacy carriers. The exception was IAG, the parent company to British Airways and Iberia, which grew traffic by 8%.
Austrian, owned by Lufthansa group, saw a sharp drop in traffic, down 13.2%. It is important to point out that passenger traffic is not everything. Of far more importance to the airlines themselves is how profitable passengers are.
Lufthansa's traffic edged up slightly. What will be of interest is looking later in the year. At the ITB trade fair in Berlin this month, the airline announced a new pricing structure on domestic and European routes. There will be three fare options — 'Light', 'Classic' and 'Flex' — giving passengers the option of low-cost style basic tickets or more bundled options.