The Lufthansa Group today (September 9) reported a rise of 5.1% in sales for August compared with the same month last year.
As in previous months, the main drivers of the growth were Lufthansa and SWISS which saw a respective increase of 8.1% and 5.7% compared with 2010.
Others airlines in the Group fared less well with Austrian reporting just a 0.3% increase while bmi saw a 9% drop and Germanwings a fall of 4%.
The Group blamed bmi’s performance on the “uncertain political situation in the Middle East” while Germanwings’ drop was attributed to “notable reductions in capacity.”
Load factors for the Group dropped slightly by 2% to 81.4%.
Regionally, the Group said sales on its long haul routes to Asia Pacific (8.1%) and North America (6.1%) both increased although sales to the Africa and MEA region fell by 3.4%.
Short haul business in Europe also improved compared with last year with a 5.2% rise in sales.