Lufthansa Passengers Down while Ryanair Soar
Germany’s largest airline Lufthansa announced that first half passenger results for 2009 had slipped from the 2008 results, with fewer passengers taking flights across Europe and further afield.
The airline blamed the “persistent economic downturn” for its reduced numbers, as 26.7 million customers took flights with the company, down by 6.1 per cent from last year. Lufthansa’s subsidiary SWISS, the principal airline of Switzerland also received fewer passengers, showing a one per cent decrease to 6.5 million passengers.
Overall, the Lufthansa Group carried 33.2 million passengers in the first six months of 2009, nearly five per cent less than last year’s results. In a bid to stimulate growth, Lufthansa have offered customers special promotional discount flights with 20 per cent off on flights to Milan to coincide with the Italian Grand Prix in Monza.
Customers can also take connecting flights to Naples, Bari and Rome as part of the deal. Meanwhile, while Lufthansa struggle with passenger numbers, cheap flight specialist Ryanair were only too pleased to announce this week that its traffic number were growing, and had eclipsed those of British Airways.
The June results for Ryanair show a 13 per cent traffic increase to 5.8 million while BA traffic figures slipped to 2.9 million. Ryanair’s Stephen McNamara announced on the company website: “Ryanair continues to grow traffic each month as passengers opt for Ryanair’s guaranteed lowest fares and no fuel surcharge over BA’s high fares and unjustified fuel surcharges.”
The Irish carrier made headlines this week for its controversial PR stunt. The airline unveiled plans to stuff more passengers into its aircraft by strapping them into a standing position rather than giving passengers a seat on short-haul flights.
Cheap Flights News posted by Burt Ernstein on 10 July 2009
Stock Tickers: ETR:LHE
Lufthansa, Ryanair, budget flights, cheap flights, Milan, Rome
http://konzern.lufthansa.com/en/html/presse/pressemeldungen/index.html?c=nachrichten/app/show/en/2009/07/941/HOM&s=0
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