- Lufthansa group falls behind Ryanair for first time
- Digital Forum sets out stall with faster on-board wifi
- Passengers numbers to be boosted by acquisition
The Lufthansa group reported 109,670k passengers in 2016, up 1.86pc on 2015 and finishing for the first time behind Ryanair’s 116.8m by a larger margin than previously predicted.
The sluggish growth is a result of the impact of strike action by Lufthansa unions. Load factor was 79,1 and the number of flights 1,021,919. ASK was 286,555 and RSK 226,633. Lufthansa carried 62,418k (up 0.1pc), Swiss 17,972k (up 2.5pc), Austrian 11,385k (up 5.1pc) and Eurowings 18,430k (up 8.8pc).
Speaking at the Lufthansa Digital Forum in Frankfurt, Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr said he had a very positive board meeting and had identified the year 2017 when Lufthansa would move forward with new digital products to guide passengers through the airports and the flight experience. He paid tribute to Ryanair’s achievements joking with Travel Extra that he had “no secrets from Michael O’Leary. Lufthansa is expected to boost the high-performing Eurowings leg of its business, adding Brussels to that sector and taking over Air Berlin routes to fight Ryanair in the key domestic German market.
The group formerly consisted of Lufthansa, Austria, Swiss and Eurowings but has recently acquired Brussels Airlines which is likely to report 7.8m passengers in 2016, having reported 7.12m to November.
Only if Ryanair’s growth slows and Lufthansa acquires another airline will Lufthansa be able to catch the Swords based airline in 2017.
- See Lufthansa figures 2016 here
